Serge Gnabry said he had a great feeling ahead of Bayern Munich’s Champions League trip to Real Madrid and that he was looking forward to the Bernabéu test on Tuesday. The Bayern forward, speaking exclusively to AS, said his friends and family had been talking about the game for days.
“Great feeling, of course,” Gnabry said. “I’m very excited.”
The Munich side head to Madrid with Gnabry again a central figure in Vincent Kompany’s system. He was used as Bayern’s No. 9 against Freiburg, a role that underlines how important he has become as the team prepares for one of its biggest nights of the season.
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Gnabry described Bayern against Real Madrid as “always a really big game” and said the history between the clubs still hangs over it. He pointed to the last meeting two seasons ago, when Bayern were still in the tie until the final minutes before Real turned it around.
“In the end it was very disappointing for us,” he said. “We stood a chance until the last couple of minutes.”
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That defeat remains part of the backdrop to Tuesday’s match, as does Real Madrid’s home record. Gnabry said the atmosphere at the Bernabéu is “incredible” and that the Spanish club are especially strong there. He said opponents have to withstand the myth Real have built in the stadium and focus on their own game.
He singled out Vinicius and Mbappé as Madrid’s biggest threats and also named Brahim Diaz, saying the midfielder has been playing really well lately. Gnabry added that he had met one Madrid player a couple of times, called him “a really nice guy” and said that player had shown many times how good he is and deserved “absolute big respect.”
The match carries extra weight for Bayern after Real beat Manchester City “very clearly,” in Gnabry’s words, and because of the way the Spaniards have often come out on top in this rivalry. He said the 2017 and 2018 meetings between the clubs were “great games,” but the memory of the finish two seasons ago is still fresher.
Gnabry also addressed the wider issue of racial abuse, saying it always hurts when someone is attacked racially and that he hopes it will end someday. Asked directly about that hope, he said: “I hope it will end someday.” For Bayern, though, the immediate question is simpler and more brutal: whether they can carry their own threat into the Bernabéu and stay alive when Real try to turn the game their way.
