Borussia Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke has claimed that Bayern Munich are 50 years ahead of his club.
Prior to their Bundesliga struggles this season, Dortmund had made progress in closing the gap on Bayern by winning the league twice before two successive second-place finishes under Jurgen Klopp, but Watzke believes that the club have a lot of work to do if they want to be of similar stature to their rivals.
"Bayern's Munich's achievements cannot be matched by us in the next 20 years - they are 50 years ahead of us," Watzke told reporters in Dusseldorf.
"But now we have reached the last eight in Europe for consecutive seasons and, ideally, that will happen again in the next month or so."
Dortmund take on Juventus in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie in Turin on February 24.