Former Manchester United and Bayern Munich midfielder Owen Hargreaves doesn’t think Real Madrid will scare any of the other big clubs in Europe this season after their show against Roma on Tuesday.
Los Blancos won 2-0 on the night (4-0 overall) with Cristiano Ronaldo and James Rodriguez seeing off the Seria A. But the visitors had plenty of chances with the score still at 0-0 to haul themselves back into the game.
Hargreaves, now a TV pundit with BTSport told television viewers after the final whistle that he doesn’t think Real will cause much concern for the likes of Munich and Barcelona – considered the two favourites to lift the trophy this season.
He stated: “That performance won’t scare anyone in the Champions League. Before you would have thought Real Madrid are one of the top teams but that was careless. They could have been down in that game but the only difference was they took their chances.”
Hargreaves’ opinion is different to that of our editor, Paul Collins, who earlier this week gave an interview with Bettingrunner.com in which he said Los Blancos have got to go for the Champions League now that they are well off the pace in La Liga.
He commented: “It will be two seasons without major honours if they don’t win it and that’s not good enough for a club like Real Madrid. Despite a somewhat turbulent season on the domestic front, Real have looked strong in Europe. And with Bale, Modric and Benzema all returning in the next week or so they should be fresh and ready to go for a big final push.”
