Goretzka says: ‘Real Madrid are the Champions League… but Bayern will win everything’

Goretzka arrived at his interview with Bayern’s official website looking calm and relaxed, just one week ahead of the decisive clash against Real Madrid.

This will be his final match for Bayern against the Spanish side, as he is set to leave Munich in the summer after eight years.

He said: “In the winter, I made a conscious decision to stay until the summer; I feel that anything is possible this season.”

Bayern are enjoying a remarkable run, having reached the semi-finals of the DFB-Pokal, leading the Bundesliga by a comfortable margin, and now aiming to reach the Champions League semi-finals when they face Real Madrid.

But what is the secret to Bayern’s success this season? Goretzka replies: “The right players in the right places, with the right manager, and at the right club.”

He continued: “I am absolutely convinced that we are capable of winning everything this year, although I realise how difficult that is, but we will try.”

At the age of 20, Goretzka made his debut at the Bernabéu with Schalke in March 2015.

The Royal Blues won 4-3 against the defending champions and favourites in the second leg of the round of 16.

He said: “We only needed one goal to qualify; Benedikt Höwedes had a great chance in stoppage time. That was the match in which Leroy Sané first made his mark. Although we didn’t qualify, it remains a wonderful memory because we received a warm ovation from the Bernabéu crowd.”

In addition to his home matches against Real Madrid with Schalke and Bayern, Goretzka played once more in Madrid, in a match he described as a “nightmare”.

He said: “Unfortunately, under Thomas Tuchel, we played that match in which we thought we’d already reached the final, but in the end it wasn’t enough.”

Goretzka remained on the bench for the full 90 minutes, with Bayern leading 1-0 thanks to a superb goal from Alphonso Davies; an away win would have been enough to progress following a 2-2 draw in the first leg, but substitute Joselu scored twice in the dying minutes to knock Bayern out of the 2024 edition.

Now, the team returns to the Bernabéu on Tuesday looking to be the ones celebrating this time, two years on from that cruel last-gasp elimination.

Goretzka added: “We haven’t had much success against Real Madrid recently, and we’re desperate to turn those statistics around.”

Bayern have not won any of their last eight matches against the 15-time European champions, although all of them – with the exception of a 4-0 defeat in the 2014 semi-final – were extremely close.

He said: “For any German, Real Madrid means the Champions League; they are the champions of this competition and have been the dominant side over the last 10 to 15 years. It is a clash between two giants of European football.”

Real Madrid have had their ups and downs this season, and as a result, Álvaro Arbeloa took over as manager in January, succeeding Xabi Alonso.

In La Liga, the team is competing with Barcelona for the title, but currently sits in second place, trailing the Catalan side by points.

In the Champions League, the team finished the group stage outside the top eight and were forced into a play-off against Benfica, progressing with a 3-1 aggregate victory.

In a period marked by the absence of key players such as Kylian Mbappé and Jude Bellingham, Vinícius Júnior and his teammates demonstrated their quality by knocking Manchester City out 5-1 in the round of 16, and Mbappé and Bellingham are now fit to face Bayern.

Goretzka said: “They are a world-class side with incredible individual quality; they’ve had some very good moments and some bad ones this season, so you can’t predict what they’ll produce.”

He added: “Experience has taught us that they often go on to achieve something in the Champions League, but we’ll be ready for it.”

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