Agency Report –
Former Bayern Munich and Inter Milan forward Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has said he would have preferred the teams to meet in the final of the Champions League and not the quarter-finals.
“These are my two teams of the heart and I am not very happy about this quarter-final. I don’t like the idea that one of them will be eliminated: I would have preferred to challenge in the final,” Rumenigge told Saturday’s Corriere della Sera paper.
The first leg is on April 8 in Munich and the return leg on April 16 in Milan.
Inter beat Bayern 2-0 in the 2010 final and then on away goals the following season in the last 16. Bayern meanwhile won their last two meetings 2-0 in the 2022-23 group stage.
Rummenigge played for Inter 1984-1987 after a decade at Bayern. He was later Bayern CEO 2002-2021.
Before the tie comes next week’s Nations League quarter-final duel between Germany and Italy. Italy won the 1982 World Cup final against West Germany captained by Rummenigge, and also semis at the 1970 and 2006 World Cups and Euro 2012.
Rummenigge said that Italy are not quite the feared opponents they were in the past, saying that Italy “were less stable than Germany” at last year’s Euros, but that was “maybe because we played at home.
“Both matches will be very open,” he said.
