“You wouldn’t wish that to any team-mate from the national team.”
Manuel Neuer has said he was saddened to see his friend and Germany teammate Marc-Andre ter Stegen concede eight goals during Friday night’s Champions League quarter-final between Bayern Munich and Barcelona.
Bayern tore through Barça with no remorse in a game that will be remembered for years to come and should lead to deep structural changes in Cataluña.
Ter Stegen is one of Barcelona’s best players but even he looked devoid of confidence at times against Bayern and you can understand why. There was nothing he could do to stop the tide.
While Neuer was obviously pleased to win, he admitted after the game that he had sympathy for his Germany teammate in the opposing goal.
“I’m a little sorry for Marc-Andre Ter Stegen that he conceded so many goals,” said Neuer.
“It’s good for us, of course, but you wouldn’t wish that to any team-mate from the national team.”
On the match, Neuer said: “You could see that we didn’t let up [for even] a minute and that we always wanted to keep playing forward. Of course, Barça are also strong offensively.
“We know that goals can come. We tried to play [towards] Barca’s goal until the very end. Accordingly, we were successful.”
Bayern head into the semi-finals as favourites to win the competition for the first time since 2013 while Barcelona take a long hard look in the mirror. You wouldn’t blame Ter Stegen for jumping ship in the summer, really, would you?
