Van Buyten wanted to play in Marseille

Posted Tuesday, March 27, 2012 by ESPN

Injured defender Daniel van Buyten revealed his disappointment at being unable to feature in the Champions League quarter-final against Marseille on Wednesday.

Bayern Munich deposed Europa League quarter-finalists Hannover on Saturday with a 2-1 victory and the Belgian defender watched on from the sidelines happy to see his side make a strong statement in their bid to unseat Dortmund from the top of the Bundesliga.

But a day later, Dortmund came from a goal behind after the break to score six goals and demolish Cologne in their Sunday match.

For now, however, Bayern are concerning themselves with the match against Marseille and an important away victory could really assist the Bavarians in clinching a place in their first semi-final appearance since 2010. In that year, the German giants lost out to Inter Milan in the final and Van Buyten was part of the squad that failed at the last hurdle.

Marseille, the French side for whom he played for three years, eliminated Inter in the round-of-16 stage and Van Buyten was hopeful of meeting them in the competition at some stage.

"I really wanted to play there, but I know it's impossible," the 34-year-old admitted.

"They're going through a difficult phase at the moment, but they've also been very unlucky. It's always dangerous against a team like that.

He believes that Marseille are "a shade better than Basel".

Bayern lost to the Swiss champions in the first leg of their round-of-16 match-up before registering a resounding win in the second leg.

"That should be a warning to us," he said.

"But we have the quality to come away from Marseille with a really good result."

The central defender has been injured since January after breaking his metatarsal against Borrusia Monchengladbach but he reported that he has made some good progress since then as he is finally able to walk without crutches.

"It wasn't possible for nearly seven weeks. It was really tiresome," Van Buyten told the club website.

"I even weigh less than 60 kg now, so my recovery is still going to take some time. I'm doing all I can to return as soon as possible, and I hope to play a game or two before the end of the season."