Pep Guardiola has urged his Manchester City side to hurt and punish Real Madrid as they clash again in the Champions League. (More Football News)
The holders take on the competition’s record 1ꦺ4-time winners in the first leg of their quarter-final at the Bernabeu on Tuesday.
It is t🅺he third successive season the two clubs have met in the knock🍌out stages, with Real having staged a stunning comeback to win the 2022 semi-final but City avenging that loss 12 months later.
Speaking at his pre-match press conference in the Spanish capital, Guardiola said: 💙“It’s the same managers, but we have new players and they have new players, so they will be completely different games.
“We have a little advantage with the secon🅷d leg at home, where we play strong and are incredibly confident, bu🍰t we have to play 90 minutes here and the games are long for different reasons."
“They will be able to press high, so aggressive, so dang💦erous. Everybody knows their strengths and they have incredible pace."
“We cannot come here just to control the game. ꦐWe have to come here to try to hurt them, to punish them, to let them feel we are here and score goals. That is what we have to do."
“But we are talking about Real Madrid, ⛎who have the ability to control many aspects of the game. We have to impose our game with who we are.”
City midfielder Rodri feels the treble winners have learned from their past experiences of playing the Spanish giants and are a stronger proposition as a result of🐠 last season’s successes.
The Spain international, who joi🍰🐈ned City from Real’s city rivals Atletico in 2019, said: “Now we are more mature and have experience of winning the competition. It gives you a bit more composure, serenity on the pitch.
“You learn. We’ve learned from the past and I think❀ we have more maturity than when we first pl🎶ayed them."
“The one we lost – the se♌mi-final – that was (because of) 10 or 15 minutes and it happens."
“We didn’t think much about that last ye🍨ar. We played with the desire to win it again and that’s what happened."
“We come h🥀ere with a differen𓂃t mentality and more composure."
“We know nothing will be done tomorrow, but we need to get a good result. I see the team more mature and the experience will give us th𓆏e confidence to do things w𝓡ell.”
City are again without Englan🌱d full-back Kyle Walker in Spain due to a thigh injury, while fellow defender Nathan Ake is also out with a calf problem. Josko Gvardiol has travelled with the squad but is doubtful with a knock.
