Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti said Tuesday his Manchester City counterpart Pep Guardiola was deliberately underestimating the English side’s hopes of reaching the Champions League last 16. European champions Madrid hold a 3-2 lead on City, who have struggled this season and are fourth in the Premier League, ahead of the play-off round second leg on Wednesday at the Santiago Bernabeu. After thrashing Newcastle 4-0 on Saturday, Guardiola said English champions City have only a one percent chance of ousting the record 15-time European Cup winners.
“He does not truly think that, tomorrow I’ll ask him before the game — do you really think you’ve got a one percent chance?” Ancelotti told a news conference.
“He really thinks they’ve got more chance than that… we don’t think we have 99 percent chance.
“We think we have a small advantage that we have to take advantage of, and try to play the same game we set up in the first leg, which went well.”
Guardiola later admitted he also gave his team a bigger chance of progressing than he previously said.
“This time I lied to you,” said Guardiola.
“I always say what I think and you never believe me, but this time you are right…
“(After the first leg) nobody would have bet on us, the one percent was there, the truth is that the days pass, you get more excited, it’s not the best result for us to have taken but we will try to go through, for sure.”
Ancelotti confirmed defender Antonio Rudiger was fit to start for the holders after injury but Lucas Vazquez would only be ready for the bench.
City attackers Erling Haaland and Jack Grealish were able to train ahead of the game after injury issues and Guardiola said it was “good news” they had been able to travel to the Spanish capital.
Leave refs ‘in peace’
Ancelotti reiterated his frustration with Spanish refereeing, following some controversial decisions which went against his side in recent La Liga matches.
The Italian said he was more comfortable with refereeing in the Champions League.
“Statistics speak for themselves, in Europe there’s less controversy in this sense, there are less VAR interventions,” said Ancelotti.
“The VAR only intervenes when it’s necessary, and usually the Champions League features the best referees from each country, so the quality is very high in this sense.”
England international Jude Bellingham was sent off for dissent during Madrid’s 1-1 draw at Osasuna on Saturday in La Liga.
Bellingham’s team-mate Federico Valverde said he did not want the midfielder to change his ways.
“What I want is players who leave their soul out on the pitch, in this case with Jude in the last game, I always want him to be like that,” Valverde told reporters.
“Jude is a player who shows character, who always wants to win, who always wants to fight.
“This time he got a red card, but I like that he’s giving everything, his spikiness… we have to stay united as a team.”
The referee who dismissed Bellingham, Jose Munuera Montero, has been subject to online abuse in recent days and according to Spanish reports is being investigated over an alleged conflict of interest with links to a sports consultancy agency.
Guardiola gave his opinion on Bellingham’s dismissal.
“The problem is not the translation, it’s the intention? You have to ask Jude what intention he had… you can insult someone with a big smile and it can be nice,” said the coach.
“Have you seen they are investigating the referee now… wow, leave them in peace.
“That’s the best thing that we can do, leave them in peace.”
Guardiola, who led City to their first Champions League triumph in 2023 said his team needed to play an almost “perfect” game to progress.
“You have to make an almost perfect game, obviously the (first leg) result is not good,” added Guardiola.
“(A) bad result is not the perfect situation, we have to attack, we have to score goals. This is the idea.”
Topics mentioned in this article
