Football
Ian Holyman, France correspondent 9y

Medhi Benatia: Bayern Munich can still eliminate Barcelona with 4-0 win

Bayern Munich defender Medhi Benatia has said the German champions can still beat Barcelona to the Champions League final, telling L'Equipe: "By scoring early, we are fully capable of winning the game 4-0."

Benatia was part of the Bayern side defeated 3-0 at the Camp Nou on Wednesday evening as Lionel Messi scored twice and set up the other in the closing 13 minutes in Spain.

It leaves Pep Guardiola's side with a mammoth task in next Tuesday's second leg at the Allianz Arena.

However, after losing the first leg of their quarterfinal 3-1 to Porto before winning 6-1 in the home leg, Benatia said Bayern have shown they are capable of recording a big win.

He said: "It's not going to be easy, that's for sure, but if we don't believe we can do it, we should stay at home, shouldn't we? I believe we can do it, because we also have great players and the ability to play better.

"By scoring early, we are fully capable of winning the game 4-0. We'll have to play the perfect match, but we'll play to qualify. They managed to score three against us, so we can't we score four against them? We have proved that we're able to score a lot of goals at home, even if it wasn't against Barca."

He added: "Up against us were players called Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez. It takes them just one little moment of genius in a fraction of a second and they make the difference. But if those players weren't there to score goals, they [Messi, Neymar and Suarez] would be useless.

"Even if we defended well, even if we were in the game at certain moments, we unfortunately conceded three costly goals. It's not for nothing that they're the best players in the world. Why do they win 6-0 against everyone every weekend, do you think? You can't explain it, it's just like that."

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