Pep Guardiola has shared what he told his Manchester City players at halftime of last night’s draw against Real Madrid.
In their latest Champions League meeting with the Spanish club at the Santiago Bernabeu, the Citizens came away with a 3-3 draw to set up a crucial second-leg quarter-final tie at the Etihad Stadium next week.
At the midway point of last night’s thrilling game, the Blues found themselves 2-1 down after taking the lead through Bernardo Silva with a clever free-kick in the opening minutes.
After the match, the City boss shared some behind-the-scenes details on what he said to his players ahead of the second period.
Guardiola shares what he told Man City players at halftime vs Real Madrid
Speaking to TNT Sports (via BBC Sport) after the match, Guardiola said this when asked what he said to his players before they came out for the second half.
He said: “Be more calm, move less, be safer with the ball and attack outside the areas. Be exactly what we talked about.
“I said it’s 45 minutes then 90 minutes so a lot of minutes left to play. Sometimes you want to be crazy but they did really well.”
Throughout the first period of the game in Madrid, the Blues had 63% possession with four attempts at goal and two being on target.
In comparison, the home side had 37% possession but were able to register more attempts at goal, with seven in total, four of which were on target.
In the second half, the Citizens scored two goals through Phil Foden and Josko Gvardiol, before Federico Valverde put the hosts level.
They also had more attempts at goal (8) in the second period of the game than in the first, showing how much they pushed to win the match.
A big second-leg tie awaits
While it was unfortunate for City to concede two deflected goals in quick succession after finding themselves 1-0 up, only to then concede again when they had the lead in the second half, a draw, in our view, is not a bad result at such a tough away ground.
Looking ahead to next week’s second-leg showdown at the Etihad, Guardiola and his players will have to use their experience from last night’s game to make sure their opponents don’t cause them the same problems they did in the first leg, which will only happen if they play their own way correctly, on and off the ball.