Pep Guardiola makes honest prediction over Man City’s chances of beating Real Madrid

Pep Guardiola makes honest prediction over Man City’s chances of beating Real Madrid Tony Mogan Published March 11, 2026 11:54pm Updated March 11, 2026 11:55pm Share this article via whatsappShare this article via xCopy the link to this article.Link is copiedShare this article via facebook Comment now Comments Guardiola not feeling too confident over City’s last eight chances (Picture: Getty)

Pep Guardiola is not giving Manchester City much of a chance of progressing to the quarter-finals of the Champions League after their first leg defeat to Real Madrid.

Los Blancos sealed a 3-0 win in the first leg of their last 16 tie on Wednesday night with Federico Valverde scoring a sensational hat-trick in the Spanish capital.

Real were denied a fourth when Gianluigi Donnarumma saved Vinicius Jr’s penalty but City have it all to do in the return leg in Manchester next week.

City crashed out of the competition at the play-off stage to the same opposition last season and face another early exit unless they can stage a huge fightback on home turf.

But when asked what chance do City have of progressing to the next round, Guardiola told a post-match press conference ‘Right now, not much.

‘Of course we are going to try. Now everything is more difficult with our mindset but we will be there, we will be with our people, we can do more to be better in the final third and we will try.’

City are back in Premier League action away to West Ham United on Saturday evening in a game where they cannot afford to drop any more points in the title race with Arsenal.

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Valverde scored a stunning hat-trick against City (Picture: Getty Images)

Real then come to the Etihad next Tuesday.

‘Against teams like Real Madrid you know that as soon as you lose the ball that they’re just waiting to play a counter attack and then they score,’ Jeremy Doku said.

City have the chance to save the tie back in Manchester next week (Picture: Getty)

‘They scored three goals and then it’s difficult to come back because they played very defensively, but I feel like if we scored the first chances that we had it’s a different game.

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‘[Donnarumma’s save] helped us massively, we’re still confident.

‘Obviously we have a game against West Ham before, but we trust our qualities and we know that at the Etihad it’s also a different game.

‘We’ll need our fans to help us and if they can score three goals why can’t we?’

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