Pep Guardiola knew it was coming as soon as
Manchester City confirmed their place in the
Champions League quarter finals. "If you play against Bayern Munich, how many Champions Leagues they have and the history they have," said Guardiola , discussing Bayern,
Real Madrid and
Paris Saint-Germain. "We respect all of them, we are scared too. I don't know if they are but we are." It's true that City will probably have viewed Real Madrid as their lest preferable quarter-final draw ahead of being paired on Friday. It's similarly true that Real will have thought exactly the same of City because of what happened at the Etihad last season. ALSO READ: Man City given one huge injury boost but two players will miss Newcastle amid Kevin De Bruyne issue ALSO READ: 'From now on' -
Pep Guardiola challenges Man City fans after
Manchester United atmosphere Guardiola accepts City are still relatively new to the latter stages of the Champions League. He says they needed to lose to Monaco,
Liverpool and
Tottenham to learn how to navigate the knockouts - and that they needed to lose to Madrid and
Chelsea in the semi-finals and final to know what is needed to kick on from there. It all came together last season with a brilliant run past Bayern, Real and then Inter Milan in the showpiece. That is why Guardiola knows Real will be just as scared of City. "At the end, Madrid suffer to go through vs Leipzig. We play Leipzig and people says it's easy. It's not easy, everything is difficult," Guardiola said after the Copenhagen win. And after the draw on Friday, he said: "You cannot control the draw. When people say this draw is easy, you undermine the other opponent. "It's not necessary to say what Real Madrid are in this competition. The draw is the second leg at home but two years ago it was away. It is what it is, we have to play two good games - there and here - to go through." If Guardiola was keeping his cards close to his chest, Sporting Director Txiki Begiristain was more brash. "Why not?" he asked regarding the prospect of beating Real again. "Mentally, we are strong and top in confidence. We are going to need it to beat Real Madrid. We are confident – in the last years we’ve been fighting for this competition and last year we won it. We hope we can keep the winning run going." That is why Real will be scared of City as well. City used their last-16 clash with Madrid in 2020 to take a huge step forward in Europe with a fine win at the Bernabeu. They learned from the heartbreak of 2022 to progress in 2023 emphatically. Erling Haaland didn't score against Real last year, Kevin De Bruyne was playing with an injury and Phil Foden wasn't playing in the form of his life at number 10. City are arguably stronger and harder to beat. They will have learned from last season too. There is nothing to be afraid of this year - City are the team to beat.