Manchester City were knocked out of the Champions League by Real Madrid last season, but Pep Guardiola is feeling more confident this time around for one key reason.
The 2024/25 campaign was a difficult one for Manchester City, with the club failing to win any silverware after losing the FA Cup final to Crystal Palace.
Pep Guardiola will have been particularly disappointed by his team’s performances in the Champions League, as they failed to finish inside the top eight of the league phase.
This led to a play-off tie against Real Madrid which did not go according to plan, as the Spanish giants claimed a 6-3 victory on aggregate.
Pep Guardiola feels better about Man City this season
Last year was tough for Manchester City as a number of players were unavailable due to injuries, but the situation now is a lot more positive.
City do still have a few players out, but more of their first-team are now ready to be called on by Guardiola, which means the manager is feeling good ahead of Wednesday night.
When asked in his pre-match press conference about the differences between coming to Madrid this week compared with last season, Guardiola said: “We arrive better in terms of we have the squad. Last season we arrived with a lot of fatigue and so few players available.”
Man City have plenty of options who could hurt Real Madrid
Erling Haaland trained ahead of Man City’s clash with Real Madrid, while Marc Guehi and Antoine Semenyo are now eligible to play in the Champions League.
This will come as a huge boost for Guardiola and even without his core stars, there is a lot of depth in the squad. Of course, this was shown as a much changed Man City starting eleven triumphed over Newcastle last weekend in the FA Cup.
That performance showed City have both quality in every area of the pitch and some solid options off the bench, which is why Guardiola is in good spirits.
