Pep Guardiola explains shock Man City training call ahead of Real Madrid tie

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Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola spoke about how his team will prepare for their Champions League clash with Real Madrid

Pep Guardiola does not think training more will help his team beat Real Madrid after telling his players to stay at home the day before their Champions League clash. The Manchester City manager took the decision following their Premier League draw at West Ham on Saturday evening.

The City players were back in on Sunday for a recovery session at the City Football Academy but will only come back on Tuesday afternoon - the day of their Champions League game with Real Madrid - before playing the match at the Etihad that evening. Guardiola is happy that his squad already know enough about what they need to do without needing to train for an extra day.

"We were in Madrid, travel here, day after here no training, go to London, arrive yesterday at 2.30am, today you cannot do anything because the players who played are still at home and tomorrow we train," he said. "We will not have to train something but repetition for the training will take us to Real Madrid.

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"We don't have time to train. I prefer them to be at home. We will arrive at 2[pm], move a little on the legs and go. I did it two or three times this season. Sometimes I train, sometimes I say stay at home. We have been together for 11 months with the [Club] World Cup so we know each other quite well."

City took the unusual decision back in November, between a Premier League game with Bournemouth and a Champions League game at home to Dortmund. Guardiola said then that it was better that the players 'didn't see each other' until the morning of the match.

The Blues won that match 4-1 and City will need to win by at least a three-goal margin if they are to have any hope of overhauling their first-leg deficit against Real Madrid. The winners will almost certainly meet Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals, with Vincent Kompany's side destroying Atalanta 6-1 in the first leg of their last-16 clash.