CHAMPIONS LEAGUE QUOTES

“These are the matches everyone wants to be involved with.
All too often, we come up against team who put eight men
behind the ball and try to stop us playing. When you face
such tactics, it is not easy to play, but I'm sure this will
not happen against a great club like Manchester United.

“Teams are scared of us more than ever now. Since Ronaldo
came to the club this has been more obvious. Our opponents
are more worried about our reputation than playing the game,
but we are overcoming this problem in Spain and proving what
a great team we can be. I know we will do the same in the
Champions League.”

McManaman has found someone to listen to him, and now he
just won’t be quiet:

“I have to say we'll win this time. I'm extremely optimistic
- with the team we've got you can't help but be confident.
To be honest we're not bothered how well they (United) play.
No disrespect to them, it's just that we play our own way
and nobody frightens us.

“I'm not dismissing United as a threat. Ruud van Nistelrooy,
Juan Sebastian Veron and Rio Ferdinand are fantastic players
but I would never swap those three with Luis Figo, Zinedine
Zidane and Ronaldo.”

Del Bosque:

"The Champions League is the most important treasure that a
coach can have,

"Nothing will come as a surprise to us. Manchester have
played the same way for some time now,

"They have valuable players in every position be it in
defence or attack. They have great individual players with
Beckham, Ryan Giggs and Rio Ferdinand and are a very stable
team,"

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