Bernardo Silva is confident that Manchester City can claim revenge over Real Madrid for last year’s Champions League semi-final defeat.
The Blues withstood a raucous Allianz Arena atmosphere to draw 1-1 at Bayern Munich on Tuesday and go through to the last four with a 4-1 aggregate win. City have suffered heartbreak in the later stages of the competition in the last two years.
Pep Guardiola lost to Chelsea in the 2021 final before succumbing to a stunning last-gasp comeback from Madrid in the semi-finals the following season. The Spaniards went on to lift the trophy after a 1-0 win over Liverpool.
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City and Madrid meet in the last four again next month with the winner facing either AC Milan or Inter Milan in the final in Istanbul. The Premier League champions will be eager to get one back on Madrid in their quest for the treble this season.
Silva played the full match in both of last year’s semi-final legs, netting in the home match thriller which ended 4-3 to City. He was also on the pitch during the second leg when Rodrygo scored two late headers before Karim Benzema’s winning penalty in extra time.
Speaking in Germany after the win over Bayern, the midfielder set his sights on enacting revenge over the trophy holders. Asked if City can get payback this time around, Silva told BT Sport: "Hopefully, yes. We know how difficult it is to play Real in this competition but we’re going to go for it.
"We’re going to go for it, definitely, we always go for it, but we feel the team is very confident at the minute and I think we’re going through." Silva explained how City can put the heartache of previous years to good use this time around.
He later added: "In the Champions League, we learn from our mistakes of the past. What we understand now is that before we used to think that: 'oh no we need to be 90 minutes dominating the game, controlling their final third.'
"You have to work hard not to give them easy chances and that's what we've been trying to work on in the present because in the past we've had a lot of frustrating nights because of that."
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