The odds of Manchester City defeating Real Madrid to advance to the round of 16 of the Champions League are ‘one percent’, according to Pep Guardiola.
After hosting Newcastle in the Premier League and winning 4-0 thanks to a hat-trick from Omar Marmoush on Saturday, City appeared to instantly regain their previous level of play. In order to advance far in the European competition and possibly pull off a surprise victory, the reigning league champions must now maintain that level for the second leg of the Champions League play-offs against Real Madrid. They finished the league stage in 22nd place.
The Cityzens lost the first leg 3-2 at the Etihad having taken the lead twice via Erling Haaland. Despite their sudden spring into form against Newcastle, Guardiola has claimed that his side ‘are still not good’ as he believes they only have a ‘one percent’ chance of beating Los Blancos at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Speaking to the media, Guardiola said: “The margin to win in Bernabeu in that position, everybody knows that if you ask before the game, the percentage to go through, I don’t know, we arrive at one percent, it will be minimal, but as much as you have a chance, we will try, that’s for sure.”
On the win against Newcastle: “This season, the reality, we have been miles, miles away. If you tell me, if you perform like [Saturday], we finished 22 in the Champions League, of course not, we would have finished higher.
“But the reality, we have been really, really poor in performance in the results this season, and just for one game, that today, played really good, and it’s not going to change the opinion, the reality, the team, it is right now, and we are still not good in terms of day by day.
“But of course, it’s better to travel to Madrid with this result than imagining defeat in the last minutes, so at the end, okay, the chance is, minor, because the result was not good, five minutes ago, with 2-1, it will be different, but with 2-3, the chances is, but as much as you have a chance, we are going to take it, and we’ll see what happens.”
