Paris Saint Germain and Lionel Messi were knocked out of the Champions League on Wednesday by Bayern Munich. Thomas Muller had some strong words for Messi and tried to explain how his rival Cristiano Ronaldo was better than Messi.
After Bayern won the first leg of the Round of 16 1-0, PSG desperately needed a win to save their Champions League season. However, Bayern again won this time with a 2-0 victory. Eric Maxim Chupo Moting and Serge Gnabry were the goalscorers in the second half. Thomas Muller had a great game and also won the Man of the Match award.
Muller man of the match… pic.twitter.com/nMNEZif4VS
— GonçaloDias17 (@goncalo_diass17) March 8, 2023
Both Messi and Mbappe were unavailable to do anything to save PSG with Neymar also injured. Messi has now lost five of his eight games against the German club. Muller has also won eight games out of nine against Messi for both club and country, with the 2014 World Cup final and the 8-2 humiliation at Barcelona in 2020 the most memorable ones.
Muller then decided to have fun in the press conference by saying, “Against Messi, things always go well at all levels in terms of results. At club level, Cristiano Ronaldo was our problem when he was at Real Madrid.”
Thomas Müller: “Against Messi, things always go well at all levels in terms of results. At club level, Cristiano Ronaldo was our problem when he was at Real Madrid” 🔴 #FCBayern
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) March 9, 2023
“I have the greatest respect for Messi's World Cup performance”, he said to @georg_holzner. pic.twitter.com/0MhvkTLE4T
Ronaldo has a better statistic against Muller with Bayern being beaten five times out of eight by Real Madrid. He also scored nine goals against them with many of them being crucial knockout games. Muller has also previously stated that he prefers Ronaldo over Messi.
Muller while having made fun of Messi also remembered to acknowledge his greatness as well. The Argentine’s World Cup triumph led to Muller talking about Messi’s performance in the World Cup, “I have the greatest respect for Messi’s World Cup performance, his individual performance was amazing. He carried the whole squad.
He also said how PSG is a difficult team to play for, “It’s not so easy to play at a team like PSG. It’s difficult to get a really good team balance.”
Messi last won the Champions League eight years ago in 2015. He is yet to renew for PSG and may leave for free at the end of the season. Manager Christopher Galtier is expected to continue despite another unsuccessful campaign.
Bayern has now joined Chelsea, AC Milan, and Benfica in the Champions League quarter-finals. The remaining fixtures are Real Madrid against Liverpool, Manchester City against RB Leipzig, Porto against Inter Milan, and Napoli against Eintracht Frankfurt.
