Real Madrid defender confident about second leg tie against ‘not dangerous’ Man City | OneFootball

Speaking after the thrilling encounter between Real Madrid and Manchester City at the Santiago Bernabeu, Antonio Rudiger stated that the Merengues are confident about getting the job done at the Etihad next week.

Clashing in the first leg of the semi-finals at the Bernabeu, both teams put up an entertaining display with the game ending in a hard-fought 1-1 draw, which means the tie hangs in the balance heading into the second leg at the Etihad.

Coming into the game, there was a lot of talk about how Real Madrid would deal with Erling Haaland and the Manchester City attack in general, given the form that the English champions were in.

But, Rudiger nullified the threat of Haaland and the Manchester City attack had a relatively quiet night despite dominating possession.

“At the end of the day, they were not dangerous. They had possession, we knew that this would happen… but most importantly they were not dangerous. Obviously, their goal was quality from De Bruyne,” Rudiger said, as quoted by Mirror.

“We got the goal a bit late so we feel a bit like we could have got out with more,” the former Chelsea defender added, echoing the sentiments of his manager Carlo Ancelotti.

And he insisted that Real Madrid will go into the game at the Etihad with confidence of getting the job done.

“But it’s no problem, the tie is definitely on and we can go with confidence to Manchester. We are Real Madrid. We are always confident,” he said.

Rudiger started alongside David Alaba at the heart of the Real Madrid defence on Tuesday in the absence of Eder Militao, who was suspended for the match due to an accumulation of cards.

The German international put in a solid display, managing to keep Haaland quiet for most of the match. It will now be interesting to see whether Ancelotti retains him in the team or reinstates Militao for the second leg at the Etihad.