City fans in Madrid praise Guardiola’s “unbelievable” team

The Champions League semi-finals are nearly upon us with four sides competing for a place in next month’s final in Istanbul. First up is Real Madrid vs Manchester City, with the Premier League side out for revenge.

Last year Madrid stunned the English champions with a sensational late turnaround to eliminate City.

Can Manchester City finally bring home the Champions League trophy this year? AS has been out and about in Madrid to speak to Manchester City supporters about the latest iteration of Pep Guardiola’s side.

Guardiola has built the ‘best City side in a long time’

Andy has been a season ticket holder at Manchester City for 45 years and is full of confidence for this year’s Champions League. He tells AS that this City side could be the best that Pep Guardiola has had at his disposal.

“I think as a squad and a team, it’s probably the best team we’ve had in a long time,” he says.

“Every position is covered and we’ve got a striker that loves to score. He just has the knack for being in the right place at the right time.”

Does this mean that this City are better than the one that faced Madrid 12 months ago? Andy certainly thinks so.

“We are a better team than last year, they are not a better team than last year. I’ve seen them play in Europe this season and they’ve been average.”

City can now win without playing well

Manchester City fan Ed, who went to his first game at Maine Road in 1989, believes that this is a chance to get some revenge over Real Madrid.

“We want to put right what went wrong last time,” Ed tells AS. “We’re better than we were last year and I don’t think that Real Madrid are any better than they were. I’m looking forward to tonight with some confidence.”

But is this the best side that Guardiola has had at Manchester City? Ed isn’t so sure, but is confident that this team can go further previous iterations.

“We were a brilliant side in 2018. I’m not sure if this team is actually better, but now we can win games that we maybe don’t deserve to win.”

“[Last year] we did well in the second leg and we were in the final. And then we just weren’t.”

‘There is literally no bad player in this team’

Another City supporter in Madrid for the game, also called Andy, has followed the team since birth. He was at the semi-final last year and has no doubts that the latest iteration of Pep Guardiola’s side is the best to date.

“Oh, the team is unbelievable,” he says. “If you go through the team, there is literally no bad player in the team, not one weak link.”

“It’s a great team at the moment,” he says.

Of course the biggest change in the City lineup since they last played against Real Madrid is the addition of Erling Haaland. Fellow Norwegian Geir is in Madrid for the game and believes that Haaland takes Guardiola’s team to the next level.

“He is the world’s best striker right now, no doubt about that,” he tells AS. “And if he’s in the mood today he’s going to score three goals, sorry Madrid!”

“He’s a big change, he’s scored 51 goals already this year, he’s amazing.”