Real Madrid: Pep Guardiola’s Champions League comments are a ploy
By Ben Sundock
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has been quick to praise Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane and the players a little under a month until the two sides meet in the Champions League round of 16. Don’t believe anything he said.
Friday afternoon, the teams who are still in the Champions League knockout stages found out the competition would switch to a bracket format. Unlike in other years where the knockout rounds are drawn a random, there is now a set bracket.
Real Madrid will have the difficult task of overcoming a 1-2 defeat in the first leg against Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City in England on August 7th and Pep is already making comments regarding the match.
When he was asked about the draw and the prospect of facing either Juventus and Cristiano Ronaldo in the quarterfinals or Olympique Lyonnais, the former FC Barcelona boss had this to say:
"“We have to play against Madrid. We play against Real Madrid, if we think about the next step the king of this competition will put us out.”"
Were this any other manager, I would believe the comments as cautious optimism, but when it’s Pep Guardiola saying this, it’s clear that he is playing mind games and setting himself up for either result.
What he is doing here is in the event Real Madrid comes back and wins the tie, he can point to these comments and say, ‘look, they are the kings of Europe. They have won this competition four times in the last decade and know how to win it.’
If City do hold and advance to the quarterfinals of the Champions League, Pep will be banging the drum, saying, ‘we dethroned the kings! We are an elite team look at us!’
Guardiola is a Real Madrid hater through and through since he was born in Catalonia, played for Barcelona for over a decade, and coached the team for several years as well. Add in the fact that Manchester City is staring at a two-year ban from European competition, this is a vital match for the English club and its manager.
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Real Madrid players will not let this passive aggressive comments get in their heads’ and the fans should ignore them as well. Don’t fall the bait. Let’s go win in the Etihad.