Manchester City star Bernardo Silva is confident that they will beat Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-finals.
However, talkSPORT’s Stuart Pearce has warned City of the holders’ quality in front of goal ahead of the tie.
City reached the last four of the Champions League for the third consecutive season with a 1-1 draw at Bayern Munich, going through 4-1 on aggregate.
They will now face Madrid in a repeat of last season’s semi-final, which saw them exit the competition in dramatic circumstances, but Silva has believes things will work out differently this time around.
Speaking to BT Sport, he said: “In the Champions League, we learn from our mistakes from the past, and what we understand now is that before we used to think, ‘we need to be 90 minutes dominating the game, controlling in the final third’.
“In this competition when you play against Bayern, PSG [Paris Saint-Germain], Madrid, Barcelona, Liverpool whatever, you need to accept that sometimes you have to defend and you have to be consistent.
“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.”
City are yet to win the Champions League and when asked if they’ll get revenge against Madrid next month, Silva confidently replied: “Hopefully yes!
“We know how tough it is to play Madrid in this competition, we’ve got to go for it definitely. We always go for it, but we feel the team is very, very confident at the minute. I think we’re going through.”
City, who won the first leg at the Etihad Stadium 3-0, completed the job at the Allianz Arena with Erling Haaland giving them the lead on 57 minutes. Joshua Kimmich scored a late penalty as the second leg finished 1-1.
Pep Guardiola’s side are one of the favourites to win the Champions League this season, but Pearce is worried about how clinical Madrid could be in the semi-finals.
“I’m just looking at this game and thinking what’s up ahead for City,” the former City manager said on commentary for talkSPORT.
“No doubt they’ve got a brilliant, brilliant match-up against Madrid coming up next but, you’re thinking if Madrid were playing tonight with the cutting edge that they showed last night, it could be a slightly different affair.”
When later asked if he fears for City, Pearce added: “I do. I’m looking at a City side that I want to win, I want all English teams to win the European competitions, I want City to win it.
“I’m thinking, on what I saw with the clinical nature of Madrid, they would have took two or three chances tonight if they got in those advanced areas I think. I think we’re on for a brilliant, brilliant semi-final.
“I heard the odds of who might win it, and City being the odds-on favourites with Madrid being 7/2, I think that’s very, very generous at 7/2. I think these teams are very, very tightly matched.”
With the superb form that they’re in, City could be on course to win a historic treble this season.
Their focus now switches to an FA Cup semi-final against Sheffield United on Saturday, before their Premier League title clash against Arsenal next Wednesday.
