Txiki Begiristain has shared his reaction to Manchester City’s Champions League quarter-final draw against Real Madrid.
After securing their place in the last eight of the competition, the Citizens were drawn against Real in the two-leg quarter-final round.
Shortly after the draw was announced, City’s director of football shared his immediate reaction.
Begiristain reacts to Champions League draw
Speaking in an interview to the media, which was shared on a live stream on City’s YouTube channel, Begiristain had this to say about the draw.
He said: “I feel okay because any club would be very difficult. To get into the last eight I think is amazing, the group of teams that are here, okay now it’s Real Madrid, of course, we have to remember we beat them last season, in the semi-finals so we want to try and remember that.
“But of course, we know how strong they are, they are also top of the league and they enjoy this competition. It’s always the history of Real Madrid, the fact that any time they face this competition they think they’re going to win because they’ve been winning.
“So the only thing is that we are confident, we are doing well, we are in the last years fighting for this competition and at the end we won it. Also, the competition we are doing this year is very good, we are winning all of our games so we hope that we can keep this rhythm.”
As the Spaniard mentioned, it faced off against the La Liga side in last season’s semi-finals, which ended with a 1-1 draw at the Santiago Bernabeu and an emphatic 4-0 victory for the Blues at the Etihad Stadium.
So far this season, Carlo Ancelotti’s side have won seven and drawn one of their eight Champions League games, scoring 18 goals and conceding eight along the way.
In comparison, Pep Guardiola’s team have won all eight of their European games this season, finding the back of the net 24 times and conceding nine.
Taking into account the recent history between the two sides in this competition and how well they’ve both done in this latest campaign, it’s safe to say that the upcoming quart-final matches will be another tasty affair and give both teams a big challenge in terms of progressing further.
