Tribal Football

Man City boss Guardiola: Good to face Real Madrid on back of win

Paul Vegas
Man City boss Guardiola: Good to face Real Madrid on back of win
Man City boss Guardiola: Good to face Real Madrid on back of winProfimedia
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola admits he's happy going to Real Madrid on the back of a win against Newcastle.    

City must overturn a 3-2 aggregate deficit in Madrid this week to reach the Champions League round of 16.

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Guardiola said, “There are many games that we weren’t playing at our level and the next game we lost. It happened a lot of times,” he began.

“If you ask anybody before that game, we have 1% but as much as we have a chance we will try. That’s for sure.

“This season the reality is we have been miles, miles away. If you tell me that we would perform like today and finish 22nd in Champions League, of course not. We would finish higher.

“The results have been poor this season. Just for one game I’m not going to change my opinion.

“We are still not good day by day in terms of being there but it’s better to travel to Madrid with this result.

“The chance is small because the result was not good but as much as we have a chance, we are going to take it and we will see what happens.”

The match will mark a return to Spain for former Barcelona midfielder Nico Gonzalez.

“He can play in both positions. In Barcelona he played more as a No.8 - a guy who can arrive in the box and has the ability to dribble.

“When he arrived and we met each other I said to forget about it to play in that position, he has to mentally prepare to play there in front of the defenders.

“The role that Gundo has done, to play in attacking midfielder and holding midfielder, he can do it perfectly too.”