The pain of last May&rsquo;s Champions League final defeat in Munich on penalties to Chelsea clearly still smarts. &ldquo;Cruel,&rdquo; replied Lahm when asked for one word to sum up the moment Chelsea&rsquo;s Didier Drogba slotted home the winning spot-kick. <img alt="Philipp Lahm " src="http://images.mid-day.com/2013/apr/Philipp-Lahm.jpg" style="width: 500px; height: 736px;" /> Philipp Lahm When a British journalist asked Lahm if he knew the English expression &ldquo;chokers&rdquo;, the Bayern captain&rsquo;s reply left no doubt that the term was not in his vocabulary. &ldquo;No, I don&rsquo;t know that one,&rdquo; he said with a smile. Arsenal again proved Bayern are beatable in Munich with a 2-0 last-16 win in March as the Bavarians squeezed through on away goals &mdash; after their 3-1 win in London. Lahm insists Bayern have learnt the lessons from losing last year&rsquo;s final by sweeping aside all Bundesliga rivals, winning 26 of their 30 games to date, and they are now closing in on a third Champions League final in four years. &ldquo;It was a huge disappointment to lose the final at home, but we see we have learnt from that and come back much better, especially in this season&rsquo;s Champions League,&rdquo; said the Germany captain. &ldquo;We have just developed further and strengthened our squad over the summer. Everyone in the squad can come in and give a performance. I think that has helped us.&rdquo; A key factor for this semi-final is whether Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi will start having laboured in recent weeks with a hamstring injury that saw him miss Saturday&rsquo;s 1-0 win against Levante in La Liga. Despite struggling for fitness, Messi had a huge impact when he came off the bench to help his team draw with PSG in the second leg of their quarter-finals. That 1-1 draw at the Camp Nou took the Catalans through on away goals, and now Messi is expected to start against Bayern. &ldquo;Messi is the best player in the world, with him Barcelona play better and when he came on against PSG, you could see his involvement,&rdquo; said Lahm. &ldquo;When he&rsquo;s on, the standard goes up, but Barca aren&rsquo;t just about Messi. I don&rsquo;t really care who we face, they are all top players.&rdquo;

Captain Philipp Lahm has insisted Bayern Munich will not choke again in the Champions League at the Allianz Arena tonight.

Bayern aren't Euro chokers: Lahm

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Bayern aren't Euro chokers: Lahm

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