Sergio Aguero claimed he would cut off his testicles if Real Madrid beat Manchester City, while he also lost a big chunk of cash on the game. There was great drama in the first leg of the Champions League knockout play-off between the two heavyweights on Tuesday night at the Etihad. City twice took the lead through Erling Haaland, either side of a Kylian Mbappe goal and looked in a strong position with 10 minutes to play, 2-1 ahead.
However, Brahim Diaz equalised and then Jude Bellingham scored an injury time winner to give Real Madrid a 3-2 advantage going into the second leg in Spain. Clearly the tie is not over but Carlo Ancelotti’s side are in a very good position after the trip to Manchester. City legend Aguero was remarkably confident about the game beforehand, despite his former club’s below-par form this season and Real sitting top of La Liga.
Appearing on the Som I Serem FCB Podcast, the Argentinian said: ‘Real Madrid cannot beat Man City. If they beat City, I will cut off my testicles!’. It was quite the claim from the 36-year-old, and while no one is expecting him to actually take a blade to his scrotum, he was hit in the pocket by City’s loss. Aguero posted a screenshot of a $10,000 bet on a surprisingly specific outcome in the game.
He seemed very sure that there would be two goals in the first half of the contest, which there weren’t, so he lost a hefty amount on that hunch. The defeat was another remarkable event in City’s unpredictable season which has seen them dramatically fall from the standards set over the last few years. Guardiola was not looking to blame anyone for the latest defeat, but admitted his team has lost stability.
‘It belongs to all of us, not the players,’ he said. ‘I don’t have a problem to accept that it doesn’t work like it did in the past. ‘For me, it would be easy to blame a specific player but that is ridiculous and doesn’t work. Me the first and the players as well. They want it – how they run, how they do it – but the truth is that we are not stable enough in those moments. ‘Today is not an exception, it happened many times. Today is what it is, tomorrow you have to continue and have fresh legs and fresh minds.
‘I’ve been here for many years and we’ve been an extraordinary team, a machine every three days. This year, I accept when the opponent is better but at the moment I’m not good enough to give composure to the team to manage these situations. ‘I can’t be angry with my team because we know the team we’re facing. The question is sometimes when you’re playing at this level and you have that good result so close, to let it slip out of your hands is more difficult to accept.
