Time to win the big one, Ribery says

Franck Ribery says the time for talking is over as Bayern Munich owes it to its fans to make up for its two recent failed attempts by winning the Champions League title in Saturday's final against Borussia Dortmund at Wembley.

"We have to win for the fans, the club and the whole team," said Ribery, after Bayern lost both last season's final at home to Chelsea and suffered defeat in the 2010 final to Inter Milan in Madrid.

"This is our third time, we have more experience, know what it means to play in a final, so it's nothing new for us, everyone knows what they have to do and how we have to play against Dortmund.

"If we play like we did against Barcelona, we have a huge chance."

Bayern played Barcelona off the park with two impressive displays to win the Champions League semi-final 7-0 on aggregate and the Bavarians won this season's Bundesliga title by a record 25-point margin.

With the European title now just 90 minutes away, Ribery said Bayern can afford no distractions and must concentrate on its own performance.

"We shouldn't give so much blah-blah, we have to play football," he said. "It's a huge game for everyone, but we must concentrate on ourselves. We have a good feeling, we have done well up until now, but we need another big performance on Saturday."

Ribery has been in superb form for Bayern this season, maintaining his incredible run of never losing any of the 46 league games with Munich in which he has scored.

The 30-year-old missed the 2010 final with suspension and after being on the losing team last year, he has no intention of seeing Bayern return to Munich empty-handed from a third Champions League final.

"The defeat to Inter was hard, I was sad because I didn't play, but the loss to Chelsea really hurt, it was a huge shock for everyone," he said.

"I believe everyone expects that Bayern will win, that means pressure for us, but Dortmund have done really well in the Champions League and played some great football with good players.

"We'll have perhaps more possession, but they are more compact, counter-attack well and we have to be careful because they also have high standards."

After six years at Bayern, Ribery says it is important for him to win the European title, the promise of which lured him to Bavaria from Marseille in 2007.

(China Daily 05/24/2013 page23)