Ancelotti doesn’t believe Guardiola’s claim ahead of Champions League showdown | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola this weekend said that Manchester City only have a one percent chance of winning their Champions League game against Real Madrid, a claim which Carlo Ancelotti has refuted.

Real beat City 3-2 in their first leg meeting last week, a game which the English club were winning 2-1 in the 80th minute, hence why Guardiola seemed downbeat and thought his side may only have a tiny chance of winning the return-leg.

But Ancelotti wasn’t convinced by that at all: “Honestly, not even (Guardiola) believes what he said, but I’m going to ask him about it before the game anyway.

“He doesn’t think they have a one percent chance of advancing and neither do we think we are 99 percent favourites. We have a small advantage due to what we did at Manchester, and we have to use it in our favour.

“Learning to play with the advantage is a psychological issue, and it is difficult to deal with it. I could come here and say that we have no advantage and will play as if we were 0-0… but it’s nonsense and nobody would believe me.

“What you can control is the attitude of the team and ensure we play the same game as a week ago because it went well for us. But you can’t forget that you have the advantage.”

The game tomorrow is at the Bernabeu and Real undoubtedly hold the advantage. Based off the last game and both teams’ attacking firepower, there’s no reason to suggest that the second-leg won’t have as many goals as the first.

And Real have had an injury boost: “Rudiger can play from the start, Tchouameni can play as a pivot and Asencio can play as a centre-back,” Ancelotti said in his press conference.

“Lucas Vazquez will be on the bench, but he has not yet completed his recovery plan. We’ll see how Valverde is. Raul (Asencio) can also play at right-back.”