Juninho: United are best in Europe
by Laurent Picard, 18 February 2008
Lyon playmaker Juninho believes that Manchester United and Inter are currently the best teams in Europe, but the Brazilian claims that OL can defeat The Red Devils on Wednesday in the Champions League.
Olympique Lyonnais have not prepared for their clash with United in the best way possible, as they lost against their bogey team Le Mans in Le Championnat.
Juninho understands that OL are not as good as they were in the past five seasons as a consequence of the departure of many key players, but the Brazil international trusts his squad to shine against The Red Devils.
“Manchester United are certainly the best team in Europe with Inter,” he said.
“They impressed again at the weekend against Arsenal. It’s a huge game but a doable one. We made lots of effort to play the last 16 games. We are not going to give up before the match.
“First of all we will try to achieve a good result in the first leg. First we’ll improve our football and then try to win.
“A draw or a defeat would be bad results. We are currently assuming that the loss of players such as Cris (injured), Florent Malouda, Eric Abidal, Tiago, and Sylvain Wiltord have been a lot.
“You need technique but strong characters as well to win silverware. We proved a number of times our capacity to achieve big matches, at Glasgow, Stuttgart, or even Paris.
“We are capable of big things and a minute after very bad ones. We have to try and find the balance.”