Chelsea start their Champions League campaign at MSK Zilina – see all the best match betting here.
Bayern Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has suggested his club is better than Real Madrid.
Jose Mourinho is rumoured to be interested in signing Bayern players Bastian Schweinsteiger and Philipp Lahm having already brought in Germany internationals Mesut Ozil and Sami Khedira.
However, Rummenigge believes there is no reason to fear the duo will depart.
“Real Madrid have a great name, but Bayern’s is better and, at the moment, we are the more successful club,” he told Bild. “I think we can come to an agreement to extend the two deals until 2015.”
Rummenigge also called on Mario Gomez to prove himself at the club after describing an offer from Liverpool to take the striker on loan as “absurd”. Gomez, 25, joined from Stuttgart last summer in a deal said to have been worth over €30 million, but he struggled to make an impact last season.
“Liverpool’s loan offer was absurd,” he said. “I told him, in a long conversation, ‘We believe in you, but you have to fight for your place. You have to fight and work like a devil’. Ivica Olic is so popular because he always fights like a devil.
“As another example, Soren Lerby played like a sausage in his first year at Bayern, and our former coach Udo Lattek said, ‘He must go’, but no one wanted to buy him. In his second year, Lerby was world-class. I think Mario can be, too. We will do well to support him.”
Rummenigge also confirmed that he hopes to extend coach Louis van Gaal’s contract, despite the Dutchman having expressed a desire to move into international management.
“We are very satisfied with Louis van Gaal’s work,” he said. “We aim to extend his contract. I expect that we’ll know by Christmas what is happening.”
Chelsea start their Champions League campaign at MSK Zilina – see all the best match betting here.
