Pep Guardiola ponders Manchester City's game tomorrow and their rivalry with Real Madrid in the Champions League

The star game in tomorrow's Champions League knockout play-off round is, undoubtedly, Manchester City vs. Real Madrid. This is the fourth consecutive year both teams meet in the Champions League knockout rounds, with Madrid prevailing in 2024 and 2022, and City winning in 2023... and in all three cases, they went on to win the competition.

Today's match, however, comes in an unusual situation for both teams: two European giants who lost too many games in the previous round to qualify for the round of 16, so they will face earlier than usual. "We have not done quite well in the group stage so we deserve to be where we are", Pep Guardiola acknowledged in the press conference.

After so many encounters in the recent years, and with such evenly-matched results (they also faced in 2020, and Man City won last time), does Guardiola think they have one of the better rivalries in Champions League? "In terms of the last decade yeah, maybe, because it's not normal to play the same rival all the time. In terms of history, Champions League, at the end we cannot compare to be honest against Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Barcelona or AC Milan".

Guardiola understands that the match will be hard: "It's impossible in 180 minutes or 200 if it goes to extra time to control these players. Everyone knows it, all are exceptional. How they combine, how they keep the ball... we need to reduce their involvement as much as possible".

"They have courage to play. They have ability. It doesn't matter if the opponents are close, they can find passes. They have movement in behind. But we have to try to impose our game. We have to be smart, especially in the first leg"

The first leg of the play-off will take place on Tuesday, February 11, at the Etihad Stadium. Given that Real Madrid got a better placing in the League Phase, the second leg will take place at the Bernabéu on February 18.