Bayern Munich director Hasan Salihamidzic insists the Bavarians and Barcelona should not underestimate Inter and claims Juventus ‘wanted to sell’ their former defender Matthijs de Ligt.
Bayern Munich begin their Champions League campaign at the Stadio Meazza in Milan today against Serie A giants Inter.
The Nerazzurri lost two of the last three Serie A games against Lazio and Milan, while the Bavarians picked up two consecutive draws in Bundesliga.
They are in the so-called ‘group of death’ in the Champions League, along with Barcelona and Viktoria Plzen.
“We can’t think that Barcelona and Bayern have already qualified for the Round of 16,” he told La Gazzetta dello Sport.
“I have a lot of experience in the Champions League and we should not think we’ll have easy games in Milan or Barcelona.
“We are going to face tough games, we have a good team, but we’ll meet strong opponents. We need concentration and focus.”
The Nerazzurri will likely replace the injured Romelu Lukaku with Edin Dzeko tonight.
“Romelu is an important player, but I know Dzeko well, I think he will play. He is from Bosnia, like me, he can make the difference and you saw that in the past. For us, it changes a lot.”
Salihamidzic, a former Juventus defender, signed De Ligt from Juventus in the summer. The Dutch international had spent three years in Turin and pushed to leave the club at the end of 2021-22.
‘Brazzo’ was spotted in Turin in July to hold talks with the Bianconeri.
“There is a lot of respect for Juventus, I am on good terms with the club and I spent four years there, I have many friends in Turin,” he said.
“My idea was to bring the player to Munich, but with respect for Juventus. We found the right solution to make all three parties happy. Juventus wanted to sell, we wanted to buy and Matthijs wanted to join us, so negotiations ended well.”
De Ligt moved to the Allianz Arena on a permanent €67m deal plus €10m add-ons and Juventus replaced him with Torino defender Gleison Bremer.
Thank you Sali as it allowed us to get Bremer.