Pep Guardiola‘s and Real Madrid’s paths meet again. Since 2018, the Cityzens have met the Whites on 11 occasions, a figure that is higher than the head-to-head that the Madrid side has with other teams such as Girona – they have only met a total of 10 times. This curious coincidence has been commented on by Pep Guardiola, who already knows Real Madrid perfectly well.
Far from seeing this new clash as a negative thing, the Spanish believes that these clashes are beneficial for Manchester City to continue to progress year after year: “Our club learns and improves by playing against the best teams in the history of this competition.”
What for many would be a ‘blow’, the Catalan coach considers it as a valuable learning experience: “The more you play against the best in the world, the more you learn, the more you progress and the better you are in the future”.
In the last 11 matches, Guardiola’s record against the white team is, in a way, positive. Of these matches, the Catalan has managed to win five, the last one on December 10 in the group stage of the Champions League.
Nursing career
One of the great figures of the ‘Cityzen’ team, Doku, is shortening the time to be 100% in the tie against Real Madrid: “Yesterday he completed his first training session. We will talk afterwards with the doctors and the coaching staff and see how he is.” However, Guardiola will have to face an extra ‘handicap’: Ramadan. “They follow this religious tradition and we have good nutritionists who adapt to what the team needs. I think they are used to it, they are no longer young and they are used to playing during this period. It’s not the first time and we know how to manage it. They are in contact with the doctors and will adapt, but they know what they have to do,” he said.
Real Madrid, meanwhile, hope to have Rafael Obrador and Noel Lopez back in action. The big doubt will be Jude Bellingham, who was injured on February 1 and has not appeared since.
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