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Van Gaal dismisses Liverpool's Champions League chances

The Dutch manager does not believe in Liverpool's abilities and has instead backed his former team Bayern for the title.

Van Gaal

Kolkata, April 12: Though Liverpool stunned favourites Manchester City en route to reaching the Champions League semifinal, former Manchester United boss Louis Van Gaal, feels they might struggle to win the ultimate silverware at the end of the campaign as they have less 'individual quality' than both Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.

Jurgen Klopp's men also are only three games away from winning their sixth UEFA Champions League crown.

However, the Dutch manager does not believe in Liverpool's abilities and has instead backed his former team Bayern for the title.

The Bavarians advanced to the semifinal, after beating Sevilla 2-1 on aggregate.

"In comparison to the other teams, especially Real and Bayern, and Roma, Liverpool has less individual quality," Van Gaal told Ziggo Sports.

"But in principle, they are not candidates, but they're a good team and that is always dangerous.

"If I've to bet now, I would put my money on Bayern Munich.

"In my opinion they've the best defence and a coach who adapts his team to the opponent, but who also assumes his own qualities, which is the key to success."

Van Gaal also bemoaned the lack of video assistant referee (VAR) technology in the UEFA Champions League that cost Manchester City a crucial second goal against Liverpool.

The match officials disallowed a goal from Leroy Sane wrongly with an off-side call which clearly came off from Liverpool's Milner and if given could have been a legitimate goal which could have been helpful to overturn a 3-0 first-leg deficit.

VAR has been used in many top European leagues this season and will also be used in Premier League next season.

However there has been no news of it getting run in the UEFA Champions League in near future.

And Van Gaal suggested he has been calling for video technology for the past two decades, and that the use of VAR on a night like this will be for the good of the game.

"I called something about video arbiters twenty years ago. I think that should definitely be allowed in the Champions League.

"Things can't be seen anymore, the game just goes too fast," Van Gaal added.

Story first published: Thursday, April 12, 2018, 15:04 [IST]
Other articles published on Apr 12, 2018