Pep Guardiola delivers message to his Man City stars before crunch tie against Real Madrid in the Bernabeu cauldron

Pep Guardiola has urged his Manchester City team to have the courage to stick to their own identity when they meet Real Madrid in their Champions League last-16 first leg tie in the Estadio Bernabeu on Wednesday evening.

City will play Real for the fifth season in succession and are favourites to go through against a side that sacked coach Xabi Alonso earlier in the season, trail Barcelona in La Liga and will be depleted by injuries to Kylian Mbappe, Jude Bellingham and others.

The clubs have played each other so often in recent years that the clash is being branded Europe’s Super-Clasico, a modern football rivalry for the ages. It should also be pointed out that familiarity appears to breed contempt among the fans: the match is not even a sell-out.

When Guardiola spoke to the media at the Bernabeu on Tuesday evening, he insisted that their best chance of progressing to the quarter-finals lay in trusting their instincts and playing in the way they played when they swept Newcastle United aside in the FA Cup fifth round at the weekend.

‘Good things cannot happen if you are not who you are,’ said Guardiola, who has been accused in the past of making significant alterations to his team on huge occasions like the 2021 Champions League final defeat to Chelsea and the 3-1 defeat to Lyon in Lisbon the season before.

‘You have to face the game with incredible respect, look in their eyes and say “this is who we are as a team”. You have to be who you are – that is the intention on the big stages against the biggest teams.

‘The Newcastle game defined who we are. The game defined the team, being proactive to regain the ball, when we cannot attack quickly for the quality they have, drop the team, don’t make many mistakes – otherwise this competition punishes you a lot – and recover as much as possible.

‘That is what defined the team in the last 10 years. We have to earn the ticket for the next round. I want to deserve to be in the next round and the only thing is to be who you are. That is the only chance.

‘Play better than the opponent. Try to face the opponent and don’t look much at the consequences. If we are out, congratulate Madrid but at least you are who you are.’

This will be the 16th meeting between the teams since Sheikh Mansour bought the club in 2008 and the record is level, with five wins each and five draws, but City keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, who won the Champions League last season with PSG, thinks the absence of Mbappe, his former team-mate, who is suffering from a knee injury, could be crucial for his team.

‘I have played with Kylian,’ Donnarumma said, ‘and he is one of the most amazing players in the world. Not facing him can be an advantage for a goalkeeper. I might have less work to do but the players who will replace him are champions.’

Before he left, Guardiola was reminded of his advice to Alonso before he was fired that he should ‘p*** with his own penis’, that his team should be built on conviction, not accommodation, that if they are going to go down, they should go down fighting. 

Guardiola smiled. It sounded very much like the talk he may deliver to his side before they walk out in the Bernabeu’s cauldron.