Pep Guardiola admitted he “lied” after Manchester City lost the first leg of their Champions League playoff against Real Madrid and that their chances of going through are better than the 1 per cent he gave them that night.
However, he conceded that the situation is still not ideal and his team will need an “almost perfect” performance at the Santiago Bernabéu to progress. “At the least,” the City manager said, “we have to give them a fright”.
Asked about Jude Bellingham’s sending-off on Saturday, the City manager also revealed that after eight years in England, “I still haven’t worked out the difference between f**k off and f**k you. But what matters is the intention, not the insult (itself).”
The Bernabéu was a place, Guardiola said, where he had good memories and he was quick to insist that while the pressure would be intense and there would be moments of “suffering”, the same was true when his side travelled to Barcelona, Anfield or Arsenal, and he would not have it any other way.
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“Against teams of that level, no matter what the stage, the pressure is there but it is more than welcome. You cannot perform well without pressure. It is what it is and it is not the first time; it will depend on how we handle it,” he added.
“What I have learnt (from previous visits) is that you have to play with courage, you have to be yourself. You have to have that mentality, you have to play to win, otherwise ... you can lose [still], but you must be yourself.”
As a coach here, Guardiola’s Barcelona team defeated Real Madrid in the 2011 Champions League semi-final and put six past them in their most resonant victory in La Liga. However, having lost the first leg 3-2 at home last week, none of the results he has secured here as City manager would be sufficient to see them through and after first leg he said they had only a 1 per cent chance.
Carlo Ancelotti said he did not buy that, dismissing suggestions that Madrid’s chances stood at 99 per cent, and claiming he would ask Guardiola if he really believed that his hopes were so small.
Now, seven days on, it seems Guardiola does not, even if he did admit: “We have to change a lot.
“I lied to you, and you didn’t believe me,” he said.
“I said because we were out and nobody would have bet a penny on us. But as the days pass, the enthusiasm returns. We will try to go through. Carlo won’t need to say anything to me pregame. We have to fix certain things but we will attack and at least try to give them a fright, then see what happens.” – Guardian
