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Champions League: Jupp Heynckes wary of Juventus threat to Bayern Munich's ambition

The sides meet in the Champions League tonight

Gordon Tynan
Tuesday 02 April 2013 11:39 BST
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Bayern Munich's Bundesliga form will count for nothing when they host Juventus in the quarter-final of the Champions League tonight.

Bayern are just one win away from clinching the title after setting a new club record of 10 consecutive league victories, culminating in Saturday's 9-2 humiliation of Hamburg.

They have scored 34 goals in that run of matches, conceding just six, but the Champions League is a different competition and, as Arsenal showed in their 2-0 win at the Allianz Arena in the last round, it's not as easy as they are making the Bundesliga appear this season.

"It's going to be a very high-quality game between two evenly-matched teams," said Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes.

"Juventus are one of Europe's top teams. They are very Italian, yet they are also very creative. They are very strong physically. Antonio Conte has done a great job with them in recent years and you can see his signature on this side."

The last time Bayern failed to reach the last eight of the Champions League was when they were defeated in the first knockout round by Internazionale in 2010/11. The German national team does not have the best of records against Italy either with much of Bayern's squad involved in the semi-final defeat to the Azzurri at Euro 2012. That could suggest more struggles for Bayern against the Old Lady, but midfielder Toni Kroos (left) does not reckon much of such statistics.

"The past doesn't matter," he said. "What's gone is gone. We don't care about Germany-Italy games, or our previous matches with Juve or Inter. We are in really good form so we do not have to fear Juventus."

Conte has a doubt over the fitness of Mirko Vucinic but he has no doubts about who is favourite at the Allianz Arena this evening.

"We know we are the outsiders," he said.

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