09 March 2023 , 10:34
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Thomas Muller has rubbed salt in Lionel Messi 's wounds by saying that things "always go well" for Bayern Munich against the legendary Argentine - unlike when they used to face Cristiano Ronaldo.
After Bayern cruised to a 2-0 victory over a limp Paris Saint-Germain side on Wednesday, winning 3-0 on aggregate, Messi has now lost five of his eight Champions League knockout games against the German giants. Muller personally has come out on top against the PSG superstar in all but one of their nine meetings for club and country, most memorably the 2014 World Cup final.
In contrast, Ronaldo got the better of Bayern in five of Real Madrid 's eight Champions League clashes with Bayern by scoring an incredible nine goals, all coming in the knockout stage and most of them being semi-final ties. After Muller and co advanced from Wednesday's last-16 tie and left Messi sulking off the Allianz Arena pitch, he reminded the seven-time Ballon d'Or winner that his magic doesn't have the same effect as eternal rival Ronaldo's.
"Against Messi, things always go well at all levels in terms of results," the Germany international cheerfully told reporters post-match. "At club level, Cristiano Ronaldo was our problem when he was at Real Madrid."
Muller may have teased Messi but he also paid tribute to the 35-year-old, who led Argentina to a long-awaited World Cup triumph in December. "I have the greatest respect for Messi's World Cup performance," the Bayern icon added. "His individual performance was amazing. He carried the whole squad. It's not so easy to play at a team like PSG. It's difficult to get a really good team balance."
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Lionel Messi hasn't reached a Champions League quarter-final with PSG (Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images)Messi is yet to comment on PSG's exit at the round of 16 for the second season running, meaning that it's now been eight years for him without winning a Champions League. Boss Christophe Galtier, who's still expected to lead the French giants to the Ligue 1 title this term, bemoaned his team's lacking of cutting edge in Munich, having lost the first leg at home 1-0 three weeks ago.
"We didn't manage to score with the chances we had," the PSG manager said. "We gave it a good go in the first half and felt we could hang with the opposition, but we didn't take our chances. If you fall behind after an hour, it's tough. It's a big disappointment, but we have to deal with it and accept it. If we'd scored first, it would have been a different outcome, but we didn't do that."
Cristiano Ronaldo enjoyed facing Bayern Munich much more than Lionel Messi (Burak Akbulut/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)Bayern joined Benfica, Chelsea and AC Milan in the last eight, and Muller fully believes that they deserved to progress after second-half goals from Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting and Leroy Sane. "We came out of our shells in the second half," the 33-year-old explained.
"That made for a better game and we deserved to win. You also have to be honest: in games like this, you need luck as well as hard work. We had moments like that, like when Matthijs [de Ligt] made a goal-line clearance. We were the better team defensively. We did well in the tackle. The mentality was spot on - we threw ourselves into the challenges and ran out deserved winners."
The draw for the quarter-finals takes place on Friday, March 17 at 11am GMT.