Man City's Pep Guardiola and Bernardo Silva confident of revenge against Real Madrid

City to face Spanish giants for second straight year in Champions League semi-finals after 4-1 aggregate win over Bayern Munich

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, right, gives instructions to Bernardo Silva, centre, and Manuel Akanji during the Champions League game against Bayern Munich. EPA
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Pep Guardiola said he was confident his Manchester City side can go all the way in the Champions League after overcoming Bayern Munich to set up a semi-final showdown against holders Real Madrid.

City reached the last four for a third successive year as they weathered a storm to claim a 1-1 draw in the second leg of their quarter-final against Bayern Munich on Wednesday and progress 4-1 on aggregate.

Erling Haaland put the result beyond doubt when, having earlier missed a penalty, he struck in the 57th minute at the Allianz Arena before Joshua Kimmich claimed a late reply for the Germans from the spot.

It set up a semi-final showdown against the competition's most decorated club and a repeat of last year's semi-final when City were beaten by Real in dramatic circumstances at the Bernabeu.

"The semi-final again ... the experience that we have in the competition, the players feel it a lot, they want to do really well," Guardiola told BT Sport.

Midfielder Bernardo Silva spoke confidently of claiming revenge over Real Madrid for last season's heartache, saying City will "go for it".

“We always go for it but we feel the team is very, very confident at the minute. I think we are going through,” Silva told BT Sport.

City did most of the damage in their quarter-final with their 3-0 win in the first leg but Bayern started with the belief they could turn the tie around.

They spurned numerous chances in the first half before Haaland’s strike eventually killed off their hopes.

Guardiola added: “We struggled in the first half and 4-1 doesn’t show the two games. Fortunately, they missed their chances.

“We defended well and in the second half we were much better. The only regret is we didn’t have more sequences of passes. You have to have more passes against a team of that quality.

“But apart from that, congratulations to all at Manchester City and thank you to all our fans who came to Munich.”

Ratings

Haaland’s goal was his 48th of an extraordinary season.

Guardiola said: “Erling is a threat. We know that. He showed personality for the penalty. He missed it but it doesn’t matter.

“He is having a good season and finishing really good.”

Bayern boss Thomas Tuchel was sent off late in the game after letting his frustrations get the better of him and he later rated referee Clement Turpin as “grade E”.

However, he was more positive about his own players, saying there was "no difference in class" against City.

"It looks like that from the results, but it's actually a difference in self-confidence and in form," Tuchel said.

"For the little we allowed [City] to do, we were brutally punished.

"We played against the best team in Europe today, the most in-form team in Europe. We played completely on the same level, [but] in either game we didn't have even a tiny bit of luck."

Updated: April 20, 2023, 3:50 AM