Grinning Guardiola admits to ‘lying’ about Man City’s minimal chance against Real

MADRID – Pep Guardiola acknowledged on Tuesday that he was playing mind games with his assessment that Manchester City had only a "one percent" chance of eliminating holders Real Madrid in the Champions league during their second leg playoff tie.

His team trail after a late collapse saw Real beat them 3-2 at the Etihad in the first leg last week.

On the eve of the clash in Madrid, Real coach Carlos Ancelotti joked with reporters that not even Guardiola believed his earlier downbeat forecast and that he would raise it with him before their sides took the field.

"I lied about the one percent chance. For the first time I lied," a grinning Guardiola replied at his press conference.

"After the 2-3, nobody gave a penny for us. It's not the best result, but we can do it. Carlo won't have to tell me anything before the game."

PEP 💬 [You have to] play with courage. Be yourself. I learnt that as a young player when we didn’t get results. Play with incredible courage and play to win the game, otherwise, you can lose but you must be yourself. When we did well here it was because we played to win the… pic.twitter.com/4Xc1n8MkVl

— Manchester City (@ManCity) February 18, 2025

With few picking the 2023 champions to upset 15-times Champions League winners Real for a last-16 berth, Guardiola was at least boosted by the presence of leading scorer Erling Haaland at training on Tuesday after he left Saturday's 4-0 thrashing of Newcastle with an apparent knee injury.

Ruben Dias, Nathan Ake and Jack Grealish also trained after all three missed the win over Newcastle.

Guardiola kept his cards close to his chest on whether any or all will play, saying: "They travelled. We will see tomorrow, but it is good news they are here."

'NEVER EASY'

Guardiola is no stranger to the cauldron of Real's Bernabeu Stadium, saying he has "incredibly good memories in the stadium, sometimes good and at times not good.

"Never have been easy," he added.

The Spaniard was asked what it will take for his team, who languish fourth in the Premier League after a poor couple of months, to beat Real in their stadium.

"Have to play with courage, have to be yourself," he said. "You have to make an almost perfect game."

City midfielder Bernardo Silva said in November that he and his teammates had been in "a dark place" after their 4-1 thrashing by Lisbon's Sporting earlier on in the tournament's league phase. But the 30-year-old said the gloom was lifting.

"When a team is so successful as ours was in the last seven to eight seasons, you lose a few games, you're not used to it, you have a bad few months, and we don't accept it," he said.

"I do think that the team is in a better moment now. Still not perfect in terms of results. But, yeah, I think we're not in the same dark place, especially personally that I was feeling like we were in."

Reuters