Pep Guardiola ‘lied’ when he claimed that Manchester City only have a one per cent chance of toppling Real Madrid.
City need to overturn a 3-2 scoreline on aggregate after suffering a dramatic defeat in the first leg at home. The Premier League champions had taken the lead twice through Erling Haaland but a 92nd-minute goal from Jude Bellingham turned the Champions League play-off tie on its head, giving Real the advantage.
The two teams are battling to reach the last 16, where they’d face one of Atletico Madrid or Bayer Leverkusen, who both finished in the top eight of the initial league phase. Guardiola has acknowledged that he was overly pessimistic about City’s chances amid the devastation of the first leg but also knows that his team will need to be ‘perfect’ to knock the holders out in their own back yard.
“Every time I say what I think, you don’t believe me but this time you got it right – I lied,” Guardiola told reporters at his press conference. Smiling, the former Barcelona boss added: “It’s true I said it because after the match in England, we were out.
“Always it’s very tough coming to the Bernabeu, with the history but we’ve had good moments here. Let’s see if we can at least scare them and we’ll see what happens.”
Guardiola went on to say: “You have to make an almost perfect game, obviously. The result is not the perfect situation. We have to attack and score goals, this is the idea. We will have to play an almost perfect game to go through. It’s the same going to Arsenal or Liverpool right now or Barcelona, the big teams qualified for the top eight, it is quite similar.
“It will be tough going away. Especially after the result we took in the first game. [We must] Play with courage. Be yourself. I learned that as a young player when we didn’t get results.
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“Play with incredible courage and play to win the game, otherwise always you can lose but you must be yourself. When we did well here it is because we played to win the game. We have no alternative because of the result in the first leg.”
City have been boosted by four players’ fitness, with Haaland seeming to recover from the knock which he suffered in Saturday’s 4-0 win against Newcastle. Injured trio Ruben Dias, Nathan Ake and Jack Grealish have also returned to training.
“Yes, they travelled. We will see tomorrow but it’s good news they are here obviously,” Guardiola confirmed. “Jack was able to play a really good game in the FA Cup [against Leyton Orient] but after he doesn’t have the consistency to play three games a week, he was not able to do it. Hopefully now he is able for the last few months of the season he can get it.”
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