GUARDIOLA UNFAZED AS CITY HEAD FOR A REAL CAULDRON
Pep Guardiola has urged his Manchester City stars to show their “personality” as the
Spaniard plots yet another successful visit to Real Madrid in their Champions League semi-final second leg tonight.
Guardiola’s side head to
Madrid with a slender 4-3 advantage after last week’s thrilling first leg at the Etihad Stadium.
With a place in the Champions League final at stake, Guardiola can take comfort from his impressive record in Real’s intimidating Bernabeu Stadium.
Many star-studded teams have folded when confronted by a European night under the lights in one of the sport’s most hallowed cathedrals. But Guardiola has never been cowed by the prospect of facing Real on their own turf, winning six times and losing just once in nine visits with City, Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
Guardiola’s Barcelona marked his first game as a visiting boss in the Bernabeu with a 6-2 demolition of Real in 2009. He also masterminded a 2-0 Champions League semi-final first-leg win at Real in 2011 that propelled Lionel Messi and company towards the second of their two Champions League titles during his reign.
Messi memorably scored a superb solo goal in that encounter and Guardiola would dearly love a similar contribution from one of City’s array of attacking talents. City have already won at the Bernabeu in the Guardiola era, securing a 2-1 triumph in the Champions League last-16 first leg two years ago on route to eliminating the Spanish club.
Overall, Guardiola has won 12 of his 20 managerial meetings with Real at home and away. But Guardiola did suffer a Champions League semi-final exit against
Real in 2014 when his Bayern Munich were crushed 5-0 on aggregate by Los Blancos.
And, fuelled by Karim Benzema’s incredible goal blitz, Real have already staged two dramatic comebacks at the Bernabeu to knock out Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea in the previous two rounds. While City were clearly the better side in the first leg against Real last week, they could not deliver the knockout blow.
With that in mind, Guardiola has no intention of taking Carlo Ancelotti’s team lightly, saying: “I’ve lost and won against them. You play hundreds of times against a rival, you win and lose and none of that [past history] comes into it.
“The talent they have, the only way to beat them is to be better.”