Pep Guardiola has urged his Manchester City side to put Bayern Munich to the sword in tonight’s Champions League quarter-final, despite their comfortable first-leg lead.
Guardiola’s men have one foot in the semi-finals after a resounding 3-0 win at home last week and travel to the Allianz Arena looking to finish the job, with a last-four meeting against defending champions Real Madrid the prize.
“We are focused a lot on what we want to do, trying not just to control the game but punish them, trying to score, understand the game and not just the fact we are here in Munich against one of the most prestigious, historic teams in this competition,” Guardiola said.
“I don’t understand a situation just to come here and defend something. We come here to play a football game, 11 men against 11.
“We try to do better than the opponent in this specific game.”
Bayern boss Thomas Tuchel has conceded that his side need “a miracle” to overturn the deficit against the Champions League favourites.
“I don’t know if talking about a 4-0 or 5-1 is appropriate — you need to be realistic — but we believe in ourselves,” the German said. “If we manage to play a good first half, we can make it happen in the second. Everything is possible.
“It’s a huge mountain to climb and that’s why we need to believe in ourselves but we don’t want to be dreamers. Dreaming for me is always close to sleeping — and you cannot sleep for one second.”
