What Pep Guardiola told Man City stars after Real Madrid loss - 'He knows'

• Sport
• Football
• Jeremy Doku

Manchester City have given themselves a mountain to climb in the second leg of their Champions League game with Real Madrid.

Jeremy Doku called on Manchester City fans to turn their Champions League tie with Real Madrid into a 'completely different game' at the Etihad next week. Pep Guardiola's side are on the ropes after suffering a 3-0 defeat in the first leg at the Bernabeu on Wednesday night.

The players are refusing to give in though, and a few of them even played in the 4-0 demolition of Real in 2023 that booked City's ticket to the final. Their opponents were seen as vulnerable coming into this match and even with a tough handicap to overcome in the second leg Doku still believes but admits they will need plenty of help from the supporters.

"It would be crazy if I said there was no chance," he said. "Obviously they are a massive team, but we know that they scored three goals against us, so why can't we? At the Etihad, we will need our fans to put pressure [on them]. Everything is possible in football, so we still believe.

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"If they are with us, it's a completely different game. We really need them to push us and put pressure on them and to hear them because maybe they don't know but it has a lot of influence on us on the pitch. We trust that they will be there for us and they'll cheer us on."

Doku looked like he would have a key role in the first leg when he found freedom to attack Trent Alexander-Arnold, but he was soon marked by two or three white shirts when he got the ball and City were unable to get the ball to any players in space. Guardiola defended the performance of his side after the match in his press conference and was positive with the players in the dressing room after the match.

"He knows we're disappointed. He said there's still 90, 95 minutes to play and we can't put our heads down. Continue to play how we play and at the Etihad it's a different game. In those types of games you need to score the chances that we have.

"Otherwise, when they have a chance they score and that's what happened. They were just waiting for us to make mistakes. They are a good transition team and they scored three goals so fair play to them."