Pep Guardiola gives bleak forecast for Man City’s trip to Real Madrid

Pep Guardiola has given his Manchester City side a 1 per cent chance of progressing to the last 16 of the Champions League ahead of their second leg against Real Madrid this week. The two European heavyweights made a poor fist of the group stage and found themselves in the knockout play-off round against each other. The first leg in Manchester was very dramatic, with the Spaniards scoring two late goals to leave with a 3-2 victory.

City twice lost the lead and have left themselves in a very difficult position as they prepare for a trip to the Spanish capital on Wednesday. While he is probably exaggerating somewhat, Guardiola is clear that his team are fighting the odds against Carlo Ancelotti’s men. ‘The margin to win in Bernabeu in that position, everybody knows that if you ask before the game, the percentage to go through, I don’t know, we arrive at 1 per cent, it will be minimal,’ said the City boss.

‘But as much as you have a chance, we will try, that’s for sure.’. Guardiola was without both Ruben Dias and Nathan Ake in the Premier League win over Newcastle on Saturday, but says both may return in Madrid, although Manuel Akanji is out. ‘I hope so,’ he said of Dias and Ake. ‘[Saturday], they were not good, Ruben said “I’m not ready to play 90 minutes, maybe 15-20”. But having Vitor [Reis] on the bench, I wouldn’t risk, and Nathan have sick, and problems after the game against Madrid, so both were not ready to play.’.

Manchester City looked more like their old selves on Saturday by thrashing Newcastle 4-0, but Guardiola knows those kind of performances have been few and far between in all competitions this campaign. ‘This season, the reality, we have been miles, miles away,’ he said. ‘If you tell me, if you perform like [Saturday], we finished 22 in the Champions League, of course not, we would have finished higher.

‘But the reality, we have been really, really poor in performance in the results this season, and just for one game, that today, played really good, and it’s not going to change the opinion, the reality, the team, it is right now, and we are still not good in terms of day by day. ‘But of course, it’s better to travel to Madrid with this result than imagining defeat in the last minutes, so at the end, okay, the chance is, minor, because the result was not good, five minutes ago, with 2-1, it will be different, but with 2-3, the chances is, but as much as you have a chance, we are going to take it, and we’ll see what happens.’.

Erling Haaland came off late in the win over Newcastle and appeared to have picked up a knock, but he is not expected to miss the Champions League outing this week. Jack Grealish missed the weekend’s action but is not expected to be out for long and could be in the squad on Wednesday. While City shone on Saturday, Real Madrid stumbled in La Liga, held to a 1-1 draw at Osasuna. They remain top of the division, but just one point clear of Atletico Madrid and three ahead of Barcelona who have a game in hand.