Klaas-Jan Huntelaar has piled the pressure on his former club by claiming Real Madrid are favourites to lift the Champions League trophy this season.
The 30-year-old Holland striker, who spent six months at the Santiago Bernabeu, comes up against his old side on Wednesday night when Los Blancos travel to Germany to take on Schalke in the first-leg of their last-16 tie.
Speaking to Marca, Huntelaar, who scored eight times in his short time in the Spanish capital, said Schalke would come out fighting, despite being underdogs.
“We play the first leg at home and we are going to come out fighting but, that said, Madrid are clearly the favourites to win the round and the Champions League. Our best weapon is our attacking play. We can score a goal at any point during a match and we are always a threat up front,” he stated.
He also added that the Bundesliga side could take some confidence from Madrid´s terrible record on German soil. Los Blancos have won just once in their last 25 visits to Germany – a 3-2 win over Bayer Leverkusen in the 2000/01 tournament. Their last visit to the country was a nightmare – Jose Mourinho and his men coming back with their tails between their legs following a 4-1 thumping at the hands of eventual finalist Borussia Dortmund in last season’s competition.
Huntelaar added: “Their nightmare in Germany is a good sign but we will see what happens – after all this is football.”
Plenty of other teams are in with a shout. I think the clear favourites are Bayern Múnich. They’ve swatted everyone aside this season and look even stronger that last year.
I think what have been proven in the last couple of weeks is that the English sides (Chelsea yet to play still) are not as strong as we are lead to believe. Looks like being another year of Spanish and German teams dominating the latter stages of the Champions League