Bergkamp targets Champions League success

Arsenal striker Dennis Bergkamp has set his sights on realising the one unfulfilled dream left in his career – winning the Champions League.

Bergkamp can no longer win the World Cup, having retired from international football, but there is still one significant club success missing from his prodigious haul of silverware.

The 33-year-old Dutchman, who faces his former club Ajax tonight as the second group stage resumes, may yet extend his career beyond this season and has confirmed he has no intention of returning to play in Holland.

However, he knows that Arsenal may never have a better chance of winning the Champions League and he is determined to make the most of it.

“One of my unfulfilled ambitions is to win the Champions League. That would be ideal for me, although it will be difficult as we have to face teams like Ajax,” he said.

“I believe that we have a good enough squad though, so maybe this is going to be our year. You have to have played in the Champions League for a few years to reach a certain level and have a chance of winning it.

“You can be a very good team but you still have to win trophies and the Champions League is one of the trophies that we all want.

“We are also still in the FA Cup and are top of the Premier League so that shows we are not finished yet. Maybe we are more than half the way there though.”

Arsenal are currently top of their group on goal difference from Ajax, who also have four points, but back-to-back wins in the space of eight days against the Dutch side could ease their passage into the quarter-finals.

Bergkamp, who is one of Ajax’s most famous youth products, has been impressed with the progress made by his former club under another Dutch master, former Barcelona defender Ronald Koeman.

However, he insisted: “I’ve always admired the kind of attacking football played by Ajax and this tie is special because they are a Dutch team, but otherwise this is just another game for me.”

Arsenal will again be without Freddie Ljungberg and Oleg Luzhny due to injury tonight at Highbury, while reserve goalkeeper Guillaume Warmuz is ineligible for the Champions League.

Bergkamp is nevertheless relishing the chance to return to the side after being rested along with Thierry Henry and Gilberto Silva at Old Trafford for his side’s FA Cup fifth-round victory against Manchester United.

“It’s always difficult not to play but the main thing is that we showed how good our squad is and that gives us confidence for all the games we still have left to play,” he said.

Arsenal now face Chelsea at Highbury in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, with boss Arsene Wenger admitting he is likely to rest key players again.

“If we want to win it, we know that we’ll have to play the big teams at some stage. But we need to keep momentum going and rotate the team, so I will have to rest some players,” he said.

“Our two priorities are the championship and the Champions League but we want to win what we can. We’re not in a position where we can choose.

“We want to make history by winning the Champions League though. There is a pressure on us, but a positive one. We have worked hard for the past five years to be in the position we are in now.”