At a glance
- Real Madrid trail Bayern 2-1 going into their Champions League quarterfinal second leg.
- Arbeloa is fighting for his job with the La Liga title slipping away.
- At a prematch press conference, the Spaniard remained confident in the remontada.
Real Madrid boss Alvaro Arbeloa continued to transmit a confidence that his team can come from behind to knock Bayern Munich out of the Champions League quarterfinals.
Los Blancos have to overcome a 2-1 deficit to advance and meet either Paris Sain-Germain or Liverpool in the semifinals.
At a prematch press conference to preview the decider at the Allianz Arena, however, under-fire Arbeloa reminded us who the record winners of the big-eared trophy are.
“I don’t know how many teams in the world can say that they have won the European Cup 15 times. I’ve been crossing paths with fans all week who tell me that we’re going to come back and with that we think we’re going to win,” Arbeloa revealed.
Arbeloa doesn’t believe Real Madrid need a huge result
Like his FC Barcelona rival Hansi Flick in a similar predicament on the other side of the tie, Arbeloa doesn’t believe Madrid need to pull off Mission Impossible to qualify.
“I don’t think we have to do any miracles. If we win the other day it’s not crazy. Their best player was the goalkeeper. Nobody who knows Real Madrid thinks that winning in Germany is a miracle,” Arbeloa stressed.
“We are Real Madrid and we believe that we are going to win,” Arbeloa claimed, though he accepted that his team “needs to improve many things to create more chances” considering their lacklustre 1-1 draw against Bayern Munich last time out.
Arbeloa remained tight-lipped on his line up
With the debate raging as to who could come in for the suspended Aurelien Tchouameni, Arbeloa didn’t want to give anything away.
“We have many options to play where Tchouameni does,” he said. “Not just one, but several: [Eduardo] Camavinga, Thiago [Pitarch], [Dani] Ceballos, [Fede] Valverde. I know the eleven that I am going to take tomorrow and it gives me a lot of confidence. Also those who are going to come off the bench because it’s going to be a very long game. I’m very confident and feeling privileged.”
