Raphael Varane believes that Manchester United have the quality and mentality to win this season’s Champions League.

The Red Devils have made a woeful start to the 2023/24 season having lost four of their opening seven Premier League games and been rocked by several off-pitch issues.

They were also beaten 4-3 by Bayern Munich in the opening round of Champions League group stage fixtures a fortnight ago.

But Varane, who won four European Cups during his time as a Real Madrid player, believes United have what it takes to go all the way this year despite their difficult beginning to the campaign.

Varane has plenty of Champions League-winning experience / JAVIER SORIANO/GettyImage

“Yes, I think so [United can win the Champions League]. I think the qualities in the squad, as I say, that competition is difficult, you have to take care of every detail, but we have a team with quality, with a good mentality,” he said ahead of Tuesday’s clash with Galatasaray.

“Yeah, we have to make some improvements, it’s not the start of the season we expected, but I still believe we have the quality to compete with the best teams in the world.

“I think the competition is about details and you have to be efficient to win the competition. In the last weeks, I think it’s what we can improve: it’s to be more efficient in front of the goals.

“With a very low number of occasions we concede goals and we need to create a lot to score, so that’s the reality of top level, you need to be efficient to win trophies.

“I think we have the quality in the squad to play and to win that competition but we have to improve and tomorrow is a great opportunity to get the first points in the competition, to move forward and improve.”

United have only been past the last 16 of the Champions League once since reaching the final in 2011, with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer leading them to a memorable and improbably comeback against PSG in 2019

During Varane’s sole Champions League campaign at the club, United were eliminated in the last 16 by Atletico Madrid.