Man City need to avoid a scattergun semi-final second leg at Real Madrid to reach final

Pep Guardiola must hope they do not one day talk in Manchester of the night his team scored four against Real Madrid and still didn’t make the final. That is the fear that stalks the Spaniard as his Manchester City side prepare for the return leg at the Bernabeu on Wednesday evening.

On one hand, last week’s performance against the 13-time winners of the European Cup shows just how far City have travelled since Guardiola arrived at the club in 2016. In beating Real 4-3 at the Etihad, City were far more superior to their opponents than the scoreline suggested.

Equally, a game that saw Real outplayed for long periods but in which they still managed to score three times illustrates just how difficult things may be here on Wednesday night, especially if Carlo Ancelotti‘s team are allowed to build any kind of momentum in front of their own supporters.

Pep Guardiola hopes his Manchester City side will go in the right direction against Real Madrid

City arrived in Madrid on Tuesday with a 4-3 lead from the Champions League semi first leg

This tie should effectively be over and Guardiola and his players know that. City conceded bad goals and, for all the brilliance and excitement of last week’s game, the last thing they really need is a repeat of the spectacle on Wednesday night.

If this game is allowed to become a shootout then it may just be that Real find themselves with the better gunslingers.

No, what Guardiola requires from his players here is a proper, grown-up European performance. City have a lead and it is almost inconceivable that they will not score at least one goal, because they always do. That being the case, Real would require three to progress – or two to force penalties. Is it too much to ask the Premier League leaders and champions to prevent that happening? It really should not be.

City can usually be expected to defend rather better than they did last week. Real’s second goal saw Brazilian Vinicius Junior run from his own half to score. Their third was from a penalty given away by a needless and soft handball.

Guardiola should not expect this to happen again. He will expect Real – as the home team – to have more of the ball than last week’s 40 per cent, but at the same time will wish them to have to work harder to score.

With John Stones not fit enough to travel, Guardiola can still expect to field a formidable back four, with the reliable Ruben Dias partnering Aymeric Laporte at the heart of it. Ahead of them will be the equally sturdy holding player Rodri, once of Real’s crosstown rivals Atletico, and that should be a platform from which City can see this tie through.

Manchester City need to cut out their defensive mistakes if they are to beat Real Madrid

Aymeric Laporte (centre) needlessly handled the ball to gift Real a penalty in the semi first leg

City only have to draw here on Wednesday night and have lost only twice in any competition since early December. That should encourage them, but what should give them pause is that both those defeats came in rather haphazard, scattergun games – 3-2 on both occasions to Liverpool in the FA Cup and Tottenham in the Premier League.

It is exactly that kind of game they simply must avoid on Wednesday evening. Last time they were in Madrid, just a matter of weeks ago, they held Atletico to a goalless draw to progress to this stage. It is the gumption and maturity they showed then that they need now.

And what of Ancelotti’s Real side? They are certainly not the force they once were. Last week in Manchester, Toni Kroos and Luka Modric were virtual passengers, for example. But they possess pace in the form of Vinicius Junior and an unpredictable genius in Karim Benzema.

Real know also they must play differently from how they did last week. They cannot get away with a performance of such clumsiness again. At the Etihad, they never had control of the rhythm and tempo of the contest at any stage, something that must have alarmed Ancelotti.

‘I think the approach in the first leg was the right one,’ said the former Chelsea and Everton manager, rather surprisingly.

‘We just need to bring more quality and pressurise them. We need to play a very thorough game.’

City need to show the maturity that saw them get past Atletico Madrid in the quarter-finals

According to UEFA statistics, Real have conceded 95 shots in their last five Champions League games against City, Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain. In the home game against Chelsea in the quarter-finals, they conceded an astonishing 28.

‘Maybe if we just played a low block we wouldn’t concede all those shots,’ Ancelotti added. ‘But sometimes you have to risk something and we have.

‘In those games we’ve also scored a lot of goals – three against PSG, five against Chelsea, three against Manchester City. Sometimes you have to take risks and we have the quality to do that.’

If Real really are prepared to draw City into another puncher’s contest, the response of the away team will be key.

Last week’s game was so enthralling that even the BBC declared it a ‘genuine gold standard match’, but while the world waits for another, the feeling pervades that it would not be in City’s best interests.

There was a distinct feeling of Manchester in Madrid on Tuesday. It was wet, cold and blustery and that felt appropriate. What Guardiola really needs from his players, as he seeks to earn a successive final appearance, is some real northern common sense.

Carlo Ancelotti must go on the attack with his Real side, leaving space for City to exploit