“It will be a final at Etihad”, Guardiola on the second leg fixture with Madrid

Pep Guardiola during his post match interview said he’s delighted with the outcome of yesterday’s away game at Santiago Bernabeu as they look up to a final next week Wednesday at the Etihad stadium.

With the cancellation of away goals rules, the team which will proceed to the final must win the mouth-watering encounter.

City ended the game at 1-1 all thanks to De Bruyne’s stunning second half strike which cancelled out Vinícius Júnior’s first half rocket for the hosts.

Pep Guardiola in his post match interviews said: “It was a really tight game. Congratulations to the team because in this competition and this scenario the teams are always so difficult for their history but especially their quality.

“We started really well and when we were better, they made an incredible transition from Camavinga and an incredible finish from Vinicius.

“And when they were better than us in the second half, we scored a goal.

“It was a tight game. It’s open to Manchester, it will be a final playing at home with our people, and we look forward to it.

“The effort was incredible. It’s like a play-off now.

“We know exactly what they have done. Maybe they will adjust something, maybe not. We have to see if we can defend a little bit better in some departments and attack because Alaba and Rudiger were so close to Erling. The spaces were occupied by Valverde and Kroos, it was not easy to find spaces for Erling.

“But we will try to adjust something maybe in the second leg to be more fluid and play with a bit more rhythm because we play at home and at home we feel comfortable with our people. We are going to try.

“The team that is going to win the game is going to get to the final.”

Guardiola admitted he was not surprised by the tight scoreline in the first leg as he now plots how he can overcome the reigning champions and reach our second final in three seasons.

He added: “I’d rather 1-1 than 3-0 for Real Madrid.

“I’d have liked to win but I had the feeling that I was not expecting to have a wide result.

“We expect to adjust a bit in the second leg. I have a bit of an idea on what we need to do.”

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