Lothar Matthaus believes Robert Lewandowski has surpassed Lionel Messi as the best player in world football.
The Argentine and Cristiano Ronaldo have been widely recognised as the two greatest players of the last decade, with the former winning six Ballon d’Or trophies and the latter winning five.
Usually, their goalscoring exploits have seen them reach the top, but both have been eclipsed by Lewandowski this season, with the Bayern striker having scored 34 goals in the league to fire the Bavarian side to the Bundesliga title.
Barcelona and Bayern face each other this week in the quarter-final of the Champions League, and Matthaus has took advantage of the occasion to sing Lewandowski’s praises.
"Messi faces his successor as the best player in the world: Robert Lewandowski. He is the best player, not just the best forward,” the Bayern and Germany legend told Bild.
"The Barca of today is no longer the same as before. They have Messi, of course. A player like him is always capable of genius.
"But he alone will not be enough against this Bayern. Barcelona does not scare me."
Looking ahead to the clash, Matthaus also told Sky Germany that he believes Bayern will need to be significantly under par to lose the clash against Barca.
"Naturally Barcelona have enough quality to produce the best of themselves in one game, but I think Bayern will have to make many mistakes and do many things wrong to lose against this Barcelona," he said.
Bayern reached the last eight of the competition thanks to a 7-1 drubbing of Chelsea on aggregate, while Barcelona defeated Napoli 4-2 on aggregate to progress.
Lionel Messi 
Robert Lewandowski 
Cristiano Ronaldo 
Barcelona 
Bayern 
Juventus 
