Manuel Neuer hopes having a competitive title race in the Bundesliga will boost Bayern Munch's chances of winning the Champions League this season.
Bayern won the Treble in 2012-13 under Jupp Heynckes but have not yet progressed beyond the semifinal stage under Pep Guardiola.
In both 2013-14 and 2014-15 they were eliminated at the last-four stage after having already wrapped up the Bundesliga title, and questions were raised as to whether the players had lost focus during the final weeks of the season.
Germany goalkeeper Neuer hopes that the competition from a revived Borussia Dortmund this season will ultimately benefit the club.
"We have a strong competitor in Dortmund," Neuer told kicker. "They just play a very strong season."
Dortmund are currently on 74 points and on course to break their all-time record tally of 81, but Bayern -- already on 81 points and with just three games left to play -- are firmly on course to claim a fourth successive title.
Even so, Neuer said a competitive league can only help the side and referenced Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain's quarterfinal exit to Manchester City.
"Of course it's good to have a competitor in the domestic league," he said. "You get challenged, and always have to go to the limits. You benefit from it in the international competitions.
"I don't want to say anything against PSG, but Paris would certainly benefit from one competitor or another in the national league."
However, Neuer added that he did not know whether the early titles could be cited as a reason for the semifinal exits to Real Madrid and Barcelona over the last two seasons.
"It's difficult to say whether it was a disadvantage, but personally I don't think an exciting title race is all that bad as long as we win the league in the end," he said.
This season, they meet Atletico Madrid in the semifinals and, ahead of Wednesday's first leg at the Estadio Vicente Calderon, Neuer warned: "We have to be ready.
"We know that Atletico are punching in another weight class to all the other teams we have experienced so far. They eliminated Barcelona."
Despite keeping his 20th clean sheet of the season away to Hertha Berlin at the weekend, Neuer has made several errors in recent months, including one in the Champions League quarterfinal success against Benfica.
"The perfect match is expected from me all of the time, that's true," he said. "It's partially my mistake because I did a lot for it, but in spite of that I am a human and not a machine. Mistakes can happen."
The 30-year-old has nonetheless proved a huge success at Bayern since joining from hometown club Schalke in 2011.
Neuer was watching on in the stands as a teenager when Bayern pipped Schalke to the title in 2000-01, and some supporters in Munich had been unhappy about the transfer given his association with the Gelsenkirchen club's ultra groups.
Speaking about his transfer in 2011, he said that the radical change "shaped" him and added: "It was an incredible experience in my life. To leave Schalke and go through this 'steel bath' [a German phrase referring to an experience that makes you stronger] was not easy."
He said that he had the support of several fellow Germany internationals upon joining Bayern. "It was good that I had this positive reception, and also that the club put trust in me," he said. "That made it easier to block out the other things that are hard to cope with. I do believe that by overcoming resistance I developed as a person and a human [sic]."
Last week, Neuer prolonged his Bayern contract until 2021 and he hopes to retire from professional football at the Allianz Arena.
"I owe this club a lot, for how they welcomed me in 2011, he said. "They way they treated me was very nice. And I also owe something to my coaches, because I developed as a player. I became a better goalkeeper at Bayern. That's a great feeling."