Barcelona's Andres Iniesta says he's forever grateful to Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal

 

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Tom Dutton13 April 2015

Barcelona midfielder Andres Iniesta has said he will always be very grateful to Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal for handing him his Camp Nou debut.

The World Cup winner made his Barca bow in a Champions League group stage dead rubber away in Bruges in 2002.

Van Gaal named an understrength line-up and the La Liga outfit edged to victory thanks to Riquelme's second-half strike.

Iniesta has said he will forever be grateful to the current United boss for helping him to realise a dream.

"My debut with the team, it was the most important day of my life," he told BeIn Sports. "A dream come true. These are very good memories.

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"I was nervous but also very grateful to Van Gaal and all the coaches I've had before."

The Spain international also picked out the 2009 Champions League triumph as one of the moments of his career - pinpointing the last-gasp semi-final winner over Chelsea among his best goals.

He added: "The final in Rome, I consider it one of the best of all time. Because there is this match but also in relation to our route to the final.

"The goal I scored at Chelsea at the last minute is still one of the most incredible of my career."

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