Pep Guardiola has decided to give the day off to his Manchester City players, and no training was scheduled on Monday, ahead of the match against Real Madrid in the Champions League.
"We train tomorrow, before the match. In Madrid we arrived late at the hotel, slept, returned to Manchester in the morning, travelled here, there was no training the next day, we went to London and arrived yesterday at 2:30 in the morning. So, today we have to recover, there's nothing we can do. The players are going home and we'll train tomorrow", explained the Manchester City coach, adding that it's the second or third time he does it this season.
Guardiola's players need to overcome a 3-0 deficit at the Etihad, but the expectations are not high after their disappointing 1-1 draw on Premier League and the bad streak of Erling Haaland.
Meanwhile, Álvaro Arbeloa comes from a 4-1 Liga victory with a Real Madrid reinforced with homegrown players, and potentially Kylian Mbappé and Jude Bellingham could make their returns tomorrow after long absences due to injury, as they have been called to make the trip to Manchester.