Varane: Clasico Champions League final would be nice, but I'd prefer it as a quarter-final LaLiga - Real Madrid Wants Barcelona as soon as possible

The prospect of facing Barcelona in the Champions League final does interest Raphael Varane, although he would prefer to knock Real Madrid's rivals out in the next round.

Friday will see the draw for the quarter-finals made at 12:00 CET and the Frenchman would prefer to avoid any LaLiga counterparts if possible.

"I prefer not to play a Spanish team, the Champions League is there to come up against other types of football and other teams," Varane told El Larguero.

"If you don't come across a Spanish team, that's for the better.

"It would be nice [to play Barcelona in the final], I like it. But I'd rather play them in the quarter-finals."

Any game with Barcelona draws up comparisons between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, and Varane admits that he is surprised when people talk of the Portuguese winger as over the hill.

"You always ask yourself if they are both at their best level," he noted. "With Ronaldo, some even said that he was finished.

"When I talk to my friends they ask me: 'Is he finished now?' I say: 'calm, calm'.

"I don't understand how anyone can criticise a guy like Cristiano. I do not understand.

"With everything he has done, with what he continues to do, he cannot be criticised."

While the Champions League has gone generally well for Real Madrid, the centre-back spoke of why this year's LaLiga campaign can be described in very different terms.

"Last year in the league we won many games late on and this year it has been the other way around," accepted Varane.

"That is football, it is what it is. It's not that there was a crisis, it's that sometimes things don't work out."