Pep Guardiola and Manchester City side will face Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League semi-finals for the second time tonight.
Carol Ancelotti’s side defeated City in the semi-finals last season, winning 6-5 on aggregate and many fans are expecting the English side to seek revenge tonight.
But City manager Pep Guardiola has insisted that his team is not out for vengeance, rather to win the first leg at the Bernabeu.
“We are not here for revenge,” Guardiola said during the pre-match press conference on Monday. “The lesson we can learn is to learn a little bit about what happened, get a good result, and perform well, to give us the opportunity to reach the final when we play in Manchester.”
Guardiola explains why he is expecting a different ball game tonight
The City believes that this season’s match will be different from the previous meetings between the two teams in the Champions League.
“This is completely different from last season. It didn’t happen last season because we played Real Madrid, and they knew what to do. But the more we play against them, the more we learn. The psychological part, I don’t know how important it is; we just need to play the best we can,” he explained.
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Guardiola also believes his team will win the Champions League for the first time soon.
“Seven years ago, we wanted to win the Champions League. Last season, it was like the end of the world, but here we are again, and being stable is the most important thing. The important thing is that we are trying to get better every year; it’s a process. I would love to have won it in the past,” he said.
City who will be without injured defender Nathan Ake have lost two of their previous three champions league semi-finals, both of which have been against Real Madrid
The two clash again tonight in their first-leg semi-final clash at Santiago Bernabeu in Spain.
