Watch video: bigest revenge football moment.

 

Pep Guardiola tells Manchester City players: ‘This is not a revenge mission’

Twelve months on from the shock, painful defeat to the Spanish giants City are back at the Bernabeu still searching for European glory

 

By

James Ducker,

NORTHERN FOOTBALL CORRESPONDENT, IN MADRID

8 May 2023 • 10:00pm

Jack Grealish after Real Madrid defeat

Pep Guardiola has warned his Manchester City players that it would be a “huge mistake” to be obsessed about revenge against Real Madrid in their Champions League semi-final showdown.

 

City face the 14-time European Cup winners in the first leg of their semi-final at the Bernabeu on Tuesday night, 12 months after an agonising last-gasp defeat there at the same stage of the competition.

 

Rodri suggested City have “the hunger for revenge” but Guardiola, informed what his midfielder had said only moments earlier, urged his players not to think in such terms and claimed their only motivation should be the prospect of moving a step closer to the holy grail of Champions League glory.

 

“It would be a huge mistake [to think like that],” the City manager said. “We’re not here for revenge. What happened, happened. Always it happens in football because you deserve it.

 

“We did more than everything to reach the final but sometimes it’s not enough. The lesson we can learn is to get a good result, perform well and have the opportunity to reach the final being open in Manchester [next week].”

 

City took a 4-3 first-leg lead to the Bernabeu last May and were within touching distance of a second successive Champions League final only for Real to score twice in the space of a minute in stoppage time to take the tie to extra-time, where a Karim Benzema penalty completed the dramatic fightback.

 

Guardiola’s side squandered several opportunities to effectively kill the tie in the first leg at the Etihad Stadium and Rodri says it is imperative City learn from that chastening experience.

 

Pep Guardiola

Defeat in the Spanish capital was a chastening experience for Pep Guardiola’s side CREDIT: Getty Images

“Football is like this, we did 180 minutes of brilliance but it’s not enough, sometimes you can lose a leg in five minutes,” the City midfielder said.

 

“The last minutes in that leg, we didn’t handle it the right way, we have learned from that. You have to kill when you can. It’s something we learned from the past.

 

“We changed a lot of things, the environment changed a lot, the way we go now. It’s another year, another goal, we are here to fight again with the same style as we did and, of course, we have the hunger for revenge.

 

“Football gives you the option for revenge. We’re in a great moment, afraid of nothing. We trust 100 per cent that we’re going to be able to qualify.

 

“We have motivation with the feeling that we are doing things very good this year and we arrive in our best moment.”

 

Guardiola has won nine domestic trophies as City manager and is on course for a fifth Premier League title in six seasons but the Champions League has so far remained elusive. The Catalan, who won the competition twice as a manager with Barcelona, has always played down the pressure on him from City to win the European Cup but he made no attempt to hide their desire to end that particular wait this season.

 

“I know the demand from my club to win the Champions League. I had the feeling when I arrived,” said Guardiola, who will be without defender Nathan Ake. “They didn’t ask me but I know the feeling that after the first Premier League the target was the Champions League. It’s normal. When you don’t have one trophy you want it. It’s nice, in a good way.

 

“You cannot become crazy either. It’s a football game. Two games to try to do a good one in a special scenario and that is what we have to do.

 

“We arrived here last season with encouragement to get to the final. The way we played was really good in both games but it was not enough. We are not here for revenge, it is just another opportunity.

 

“As much as we are here, one day we will get it. One day we will reach the final and win it. We come here to do it this season but we did this last season and it didn’t happen because Real Madrid knows exactly what you have to do in this competition.”

 

Carlo Ancelotti, the Real coach, said he was under no illusions about the threat City pose, not least with Erling Haaland in attack. “We are not thinking about a game to stop him but to stop a team that seems unstoppable,” he said.

 

Related Topics

Manchester City FC, Real Madrid CF, Champions League, Pep Guardiola

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