• Champions League

'Time to stand up and be counted'

ESPN staff
April 8, 2014
David de Gea feels Manchester United could have beaten Bayern Munich at Old Trafford © PA Photos
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David de Gea believes Manchester United have given themselves a great opportunity of overcoming Bayern Munich after "unsettling" the reigning European champions at Old Trafford in the first leg.

United drew 1-1 with Bayern in the opening encounter of their Champions League quarter-final tie and the goalkeeper claimed the performance represented a show of strength from David Moyes's side after a season of woe.

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"This is a big club and at difficult moments that is when you stand up and show people how big you are," he said. "People thought it was going to be easy for Bayern but we produced a big performance.

"We played them in a proper way. We didn't let them play like they're used to and it frustrated them."

Nemanja Vidic gave United the lead at Old Trafford in the first leg and, even after Bastian Schweinsteiger grabbed a potential decisive away goal for Bayern, De Gea says United took confidence from the way they played.

"We have a chance over there," he said. "The tie is in the balance, it's wide open and we'll fight until the end. Our team has big hopes of going there and getting the victory," De Gea told The Sun.

"We feel we played really well [in the first leg], it was a big effort and we might even have won. We knew we had to defend well, shut down the spaces and hit them on the counter-attack and we had some clear chances. Defensively we were good, we kept it tight. I think we unsettled them."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd
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