Pep Guardiola Admits Man City Is Difficult To Kill Real Madrid Again

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola. (X/@ManCity)

JAKARTA - Manchester City will not repeat a landslide victory by slaughtering Real Madrid in the first match of the Champions League quarter-finals at the Bernabeu Stadium, Wednesday, April 10, 2024 in the morning WIB. This was said by Man City manager Pep Guardiola.

Man City slaughtered Madrid 4-0 in last season's semifinals. Only, Man City did it while playing at the Etihad alias at home.

While playing at home to Madrid in the first match, Guardiola's team were only able to draw 1-1.

So it's not wrong if Guardiola declares that he can't repeat the story of the success of slaughtering Los Merengues like last season.

"It's difficult. Beating Real Madrid twice in the same way is clearly impossible. Madrid are definitely learning [from defeat]. In addition, they have pride," said Guardiola.

Even though they rely on the same coach, the players of both teams are different. This makes the game different too. Even Guardiola said Madrid's duel against Man City had become a classic match.

"It's been like a classic game between us and them. The team is still with the same coach, but we have new players. So do they. So, the game will be completely different," he said.

The former Barcelona coach who became Madrid's arch rival in this domestic competition had already predicted Carlo Ancelotti's team would play aggressively to beat Man City. "They will press high and be very aggressive. They will be dangerous... Everyone knows their strength or when making a transition. This makes us have to be strong against them. We also have faith," he said again.

In line with what midfielder Rodri said, who hoped the team would not play under pressure. The experience when beating Madrid became Man City's valuable capital.

"We knew we were facing different Real Madrid... they played differently. They controlled more games... we had to adjust," he said.

"We are a more mature team, we have experience winning this competition and we come here with different mentality and calm. I hope the experience of winning the Champions League helps us," said Rodri.

Meanwhile, Madrid defender Antonio Rudiger confirmed the team wanted to settle a grudge over last season's failure. According to him, it was Madrid's motivation to beat the Cityzens.

"Of course we are motivated to settle our grudges. We can't wait for this match," said Rudiger, who actually managed to turn off striker Erling Haaland in the past two matches.

At that time Haaland failed to score even though Man City was able to break into Madrid's goal five times.

"Not only him, we have to be able to kill the players around him. This is definitely not an easy job. You have to stop the player who wants to feed him. If that's done you can achieve that target," he said.