Those who have worked alongside Pep Guardiola describe him as a lion inside Manchester City’s dressing room. Roaring, prowling.
The circular enclosure certainly gives an orator room to stalk and Guardiola’s players have nowhere to fix their gaze but on their demanding manager.
He thrives on nights like this. The big ones, even if we’re only in February and entering a Champions League play-off round that didn’t exist last season. Short, sharp messages focused on a theme before City go out on the grandest stages.
City’s squad have heard them all over the last nine seasons. How the pain of what were annual European capitulations can help to inspire. Referees don’t want you to succeed. Use your own supporters’ apathy towards the competition as fuel.
But this meeting with old foe Real Madrid is not one where Guardiola’s players need to soak up messages about external forces or factors. They are doing this for themselves and there is a simplicity to these two legs across eight days: prevail and it can ignite the whole campaign.
Ruben Dias, the new vice-captain after Kyle Walker departed, spoke bullishly about City having the ‘guns’ to hurt Madrid and Guardiola appears clear in his mind on how the 2023 champions will tackle a team he always labels the ‘Kings of Europe’.
Erling Haaland and Manchester City host Real Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday
Real Madrid’s superstars trained at the Etihad on Monday ahead of Tuesday’s game
‘You’re getting into a moment when the train is going in the season and you need to catch that train,’ Dias said.
Inwardly, though, there will be doubts in the minds of those players as Guardiola paces across the room delivering his final words. The evening is as much about will as it is nous and Madrid’s snub of the Ballon d’Or awards in October, once Vinicius Junior realised he had lost out to Rodri, adds extra spice.
The comeback at Leyton Orient in the FA Cup on Saturday, secured only once Phil Foden and Kevin De Bruyne were summoned from the bench, was just the eighth win in 23 matches for City. They have regularly floundered against top opposition and the scars of the 5-1 walloping at Arsenal nine days ago remain visible as Guardiola plans to meet Madrid’s unstoppable quartet of Rodrygo, Jude Bellingham, Vinicius and Kylian Mbappe.
‘It’s impossible in 90 minutes to control these four players,’ said Guardiola. ‘Everyone knows it. We have to reduce their involvement as much as possible, knowing it will (not always) happen and accept that. Both teams had problems with injuries through the season.
‘Madrid handled it much better than us, top of La Liga. They have shown the consistency and in the tough moments they bring their best. We have to make two big games to go through.’
Finally, the injuries are clearing. Guardiola can actually pick a first-choice back four — provided he believes John Stones, Dias and Nathan Ake are capable of playing a full match — and Nico Gonzalez, the £50million January signing from Porto, is available.
‘A death sequence,’ is how Dias described City’s fitness crisis. It is one Madrid are also contending with as Carlo Ancelotti reaches for square pegs in defence.
The bigger concern for City is how to go about keeping Mbappe and Co at bay when they cannot shut the back door. Perhaps their biggest weapon is actually going in the other direction and outgunning Madrid, if possible.
Pep Guardiola admits it will be impossible to stop Madrid’s four biggest attacking threats
Erling Haaland has yet to score against Madrid in four attempts; that will change at some point. Does Omar Marmoush announce himself at the Etihad?
Irrespective, this is the one that can set the season off. To give City more to fill their time with than the FA Cup and qualifying for this competition again via the Premier League — which, given fifth place will likely be enough, should be a formality. To take their record with Madrid over the Guardiola era to 3-2, to erase the pain of last April’s shootout defeat in the quarter-finals.
City’s boss is focused on his team reading the ‘tempo’ of the first leg, before heading to the Bernabeu next Wednesday, and is urging them not to cower and instead impose.
‘We play the second game away because we were not good in the group,’ said Guardiola. ‘What happens in football, you have to deserve. But our team has something special and hopefully we can prove it.
‘We can’t forget that a decade ago we were not here often in these stages. For us it’s an honour and hopefully our people can support us. They’re looking forward to it, against Real with their history. It’s always a pleasure.’
Extending that pleasure beyond this tantalising play-off between two wounded behemoths is dependent on City and how much they truly want to turn this year around.