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Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge trusts Alphonso Davies to 'take care of' Lionel Messi

By Henrik Petersen

FC Bayern boss Karl-Heinz Rummenigge believes Alphonso Davies is ready to stop Lionel Messi on Friday.
Alphonso Davies.
Alphonso Davies.Photo: Sven Mandel / CC-BY-SA-4.0
Bayern München CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge says he trusts Alphonso Davies to 'take care of' Lionel Messi in Friday's Champions League quarter-final against FC Barcelona.


Rummenigge knows it will be difficult to keep Messi quiet, but believes the highly-rated left-back will be up to the task.

"Barcelona is Messi, and that has been the case for over 10 years. He has dominated a decade as arguably the best player in the world," Rummenigge told Sky and continued:

"We have to make sure that we control him to some extend and take him out of the game.

"If Messi plays on his side of the pitch, Alphonso will take care of him. It will be a difficult, but interesting task. Alphonso hasn't been outpaced or dribbled past often this season."

After missing training on Wednesday as a precautionary measure, Davies should be fit to start on Friday. And he is looking forward to testing himself against his childhood hero.


"My mum called me yesterday and then my dad hopped on the phone, and he was like: 'So you're playing against your favourite player, I see.' And I went: 'Yeah.' And then we both started laughing on the phone. And honestly we couldn't even believe it, because he knows that I looked up to Messi when I was younger, and now playing against him, it's really nice," Davies told UEFA.com.

"Growing up, I used to watch him all the time and now I'm defending against him; it's going to be a whole different ball game. But for me, it's just playing my game, changing nothing on my side and just hopefully doing my best against him. We know that he's a great player – we're not going to take that away from him – so the best you can do is try, I guess," he added.

The 19-year-old has made a total of 43 appearances for Bayern in the 2019/20 season, racking up three goals and nine assists.


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