Manchester City gets stern Real Madrid warning from Guardiola

MANCHESTER City boss Pep Guardiola knows his side are left with little choice but to improve if they are to knock Real Madrid out of the Champions League, which is set to return on August 7 with the remaining last-16 second leg fixtures.

Read: Premier League – All to play for in final week of campaign

The competition will then move on to the quarter-final and semi-final stages, which will be played as a straight knockout tournament, from August 12 to 15 and 18 to 19, respectively, with the final scheduled to be played on August 23. Guardiola’s warning comes as City stutter on the field, in recent times, notably in Saturday’s 2-0 FA Cup semi-final defeat to Arsenal.

Real Madrid Collapse In Defeat To Manchester City
Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City hold a 2-1 advantage over Real Madrid going into their second leg tie at the Etihad Stadium on August 7 (Image: Reuters).

Despite winning the Carabao Cup in March, City’s listless defence of their Premier League title this term means their campaign will ultimately be judged on how the reformatted Champions League plays out. They hold a 2-1 advantage over Madrid going into their tie at the Etihad Stadium on August 7. The winner will progress to an eight-team straight knockout tournament in Lisbon the following week.

Here, the winner will take on whoever prevails from the match-up between Juventus and Lyon, with the Ligue 1 side holding a 1-0 advantage going in. But Madrid, competition record-holders having won the title 13 times, have won all 10 of their La Liga matches since returning from lockdown en route to securing their 34th domestic cup win.

Guardiola masterclass produces stunning Man City win over Real ...
Guardiola has warned his side of the threat Madrid pose despite holding a goal advantage heading into the second leg (Image: Getty Images).

Meanwhile, losses to Chelsea and Southampton, have taken City’s overall tally of Premier League defeats to nine in the campaign term. On the back of this latest result, Guardiola said: “I don’t have to tell them. They know it, they feel it. We know the standards that we have to be [at] on these kinds of stages; in these [sic] kind of competitions. Maybe we are learning, maybe not. We will see.

The Spaniard added: “The last game against Bournemouth was not good, and today [against Arsenal] the first half was not good. We struggled to play at our level. It does not take a genius to realise we have to increase our standard against Madrid if we want to have any chance to go through.”

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