Beckenbauer wary of wounded Marseille

Bayern Munich great Franz Beckenbauer on Monday warned his former side not to take Marseille lightly when they visit the struggling French club for the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final on Wednesday.

Marseille have not won in eight games—a run including seven consecutive defeats—but Beckenbauer remains wary of a side that beat Borussia Dortmund twice in the group phase before eliminating Inter Milan in the last 16.

"We can't under-estimate the French," he told Sky Sports News.

"We saw in the first round how Dortmund lost twice to them. This team is capable of anything."

Beckenbauer presided over the Marseille team as coach and then technical director during the 1990-91 season but said the French giants "were not friends but adversaries".

"The fans down there are fantastic," he said. "Their opponents will be whistled constantly."

The day before, Bayern's Belgian centre-back Daniel Van Buyten—another OM old boy—had advised that Wednesday's match at Stade Velodrome demanded "great caution".

Van Buyten said Marseille were "a bit better than Basel", who Bayern thrashed 7-0 to reach the quarter-finals after a shock 1-0 away defeat in the first leg of their last-16 tie.

Marseille were knocked out of the French Cup in the quarter-finals by third-tier Quevilly last week and have slipped to ninth in Ligue 1, although they will face Lyon in the French League Cup final on April 14.