Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola has praised Real Madrid ahead of their upcoming Champions League last-16 play-off clash in 2025.
“In terms of history in the Champions League, you can’t compare us to Real Madrid or Bayern Munich, but we’ve been around for the last decade and in recent years we’ve been able to beat them,” the philosopher said.
“I have great confidence in the players who have done a great job over the last 10 years, we hope to do our best against Real Madrid.”
Regarding Real Madrid this season, he said, “Real Madrid are top of the league and are competing with Atletico Madrid and Barcelona. They are strong rivals. Both teams have had injury problems. Real Madrid always compete well in these scenarios and we will have to be at a high level to qualify.”
As for the trio of Rodrygo, Vinicius and Mbappé, he said, “It is impossible to control them, we will try to limit their influence as much as possible, we have to be able to stop them when we have the ball and prevent them from running.”
He concluded, “If we beat Real Madrid, it will be a big boost for us for the rest of the season, we cannot forget that a decade ago we were not here, and now everyone is nominating us for the titles.”
