Pep Guardiola believes Manchester City have a “1%” chance of keeping their Champions League hopes alive by beating Real Madrid in Wednesday’s playoff round second-leg clash in Spain.
Madrid, who won the competition for a record 16th time by defeating Borussia Dortmund in last season’s final at Wembley, claimed a 3-2 first-leg win at the Etihad last week after scoring twice in the final four minutes to overturn a 2-1 deficit following two earlier Erling Haaland goals for City.
City have won just once at the Bernabéu — a 2-1 round-of-16 victory in February 2020 — and must defeat Carlo Ancelotti’s team in Madrid to avoid an early exit in this year’s competition.
Former Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach Guardiola admits that his City team have a mountain to climb in the Bernabéu, but he says they still have a small chance of reaching the next round.
“The margin to win in Bernabéu in that position [3-2 down], everybody knows that if you ask before the game, the percentage to go through, I don’t know, we arrive at 1%, or I don’t know what,” Guardiola said.
“It will be minimal, but as much as you have a chance, we will try, that’s for sure, you know? “The chance is minor because the result was not good — five minutes ago, with 2-1, it would be different.
“But with 2-3, the chance is less, but as much as you have a chance, we are going to take it, and we’ll see what happens.”
City have endured their worst season since Guardiola took charge in 2016 during this campaign, losing 12 games in all competitions and surrendering their title hopes by mid-season. And the City coach admits that, while this season has been hugely disappointing, Saturday’s 4-0 home win against Newcastle could provide a springboard for a recovery going into final weeks of the campaign.
“Listen, there are many, many games that we didn’t play the level we play, and at the end, we lost it,” Guardiola said.
“And that was not just the three points, it’s how it is affecting our minds for the next game. “It happened a lot of times. This season, the reality is that we have been miles, miles away.
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