Blues facing a tough road to make history
PEP Guardiola warned his City players not to look too far ahead after their route to a possible Champions League final was mapped out.
The Blues will face either Juventus or Lyon in the quarter-final, and then possibly Barcelona or Bayern Munich in the semis, after yesterday’s draw in Nyon.
But they have to finish the job against Real Madrid in the second leg of their last 16 game on Friday, August 7, to reach the tournament for the last eight next month.
It could be an extremely tough route to the final, but Guardiola insisted he only has his sights fixed on Madrid, with City having a slender 2-1 lead from the first leg in the Bernabeu.
The Blues boss was also puzzled by suggestions that he, or City, had influenced Uefa’s decision to play that second leg at the Etihad Stadium, after it was initially touted that all last-16 second legs might also be switched to Portugal.
When asked about the draw, Guardiola said: “We have to play against Madrid. If we think about the next step, the kings of this competition will put us out.”
And he was non-plussed by the suggestion it was unusual that the second leg be staged in Manchester.
There had been mischievous suggestions in Spain that he had personally tried to influence that decision.
“The first leg we played in Madrid, the second leg we play at home,” he said.
“It’s a normal situation. It’s not about advantage. It is what it is. In knockout games it’s one at home and one away.
“Why should we play in another place? The first leg we played in Madrid, the second leg we will play at home.
“It is not about advantage, it is what it is. When it is a knockout game with two legs, there is one at home and one away.”
Juventus have to overturn a 1-0 deficit from their first leg, which was away to Lyon, before they can consider crossing swords with the Blues again.
But City and Juve are favourites to progress from their outstanding last-16 ties - and if the bookies have it right, that would see them meet in Portugal between August 12-15.
The only time City have ever beaten Juventus, assistant manager Brian Kidd scored the winner. The Blues have played Juve six times in total, and Kidd’s strike in 1976 - which was overturned by the Italian club’s 2-0 win in Turin a fortnight later - remains their sole triumph.
The two teams met again in the UEFA Cup in 2010, in two group games, and those two meetings were a masterclass from the Serie A outfit on how to engineer a way out of a competition in which they were not interested without losing any pride.
They somehow contrived to draw all six of their group games, including two 1-1 outcomes against City, and go out without losing! The second of those games, played in minus 12 temperatures in the Stadio Olimpico, at the foot of the Alps, attracted just 7,000 fans and saw Roberto Mancini give young reserve player Chris Chantler
We have to play against Madrid. If we think about the next step the kings of this competition will put us out
a substitute appearance as a birthday present.
The two teams were drawn in the same group in the 2015-16 Champions League and City lost both games against the Italians but still topped the group by winning all four matches against Sevilla and Borussia Monchengladbach.
That was the start of their best performance in the competition, as they saw off Dynamo Kiev and Paris St Germain in the knockout phase to set up a semi-final against Real Madrid - which they lost 1-0 on aggregate.
City also have an underwhelming record against the other potential quarter-final opponents, Lyon.
The two teams met in last season’s group stage and City were shocked in a 2-1 home defeat.
They also had to twice come from behind in France to secure a 2-2 draw in the return, with goals from Aymeric Laporte and Sergio Aguero.
Again, despite those two results, City won their other four games against Shakhtar Donetsk and Hoffenheim - to top the group.
If City do reach the quarter-finals and then see off either Juventus or Lyon, they face another tie against old European foes, with the team to emerge from games involving Napoli, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Chelsea being slated as their opponent.
Of course that could mean another meeting between Guardiola and one of his two former clubs - he oversaw a 3-1 home win over Barca in 2016-17 after losing 4-0 at the Nou Camp.