Man City need Real Madrid's 'shower' mentality to be Champions League giants says Pep Guardiola

Pep Guardiola says Manchester City need to adopt the “take a shower and go again” attitude to winning at Champions League level. The Blues boss said his team are still learning what it takes to be at the very top level, despite reaching their first final last season.

Guardiola is hoping to lead them into a second successive final, with Real Madrid in town for tomorrow night’s semi-final first leg. But he says that when it comes to belonging among the elite, City are still a work in progress.

City beat Real Madrid home and away when they last met, in the 2020 tournament, and if they win at the Etihad Stadium tomorrow night will be the only team in Europe to have played them more than five times and still have a positive record - they have currently won two, drawn two and lost two.

Guardiola admits big team selection problem

Regardless of that, Guardiola feels he is still having to guide his team towards a position where they truly belong with the Reals, Barcelonas and Bayern Munichs. He said: ”If we have to compete with history we don’t have any chance, they are better, it speaks for itself. But we have the desire to play against them - an incredible test and we want to improve.

“We are going to suffer together. When we attack do it as well as possible, it would be the same versus Bayern Munich or Barca. They’ve been in it many times. Before the last decade we were never here. Reaching the final is a good lesson for us and for the future it will be good.”

But the City boss accepts that reaching the final has heightened the expectations of those fans who were bitterly disappointed by the defeat by Chelsea in Porto last season: “It’s normal when you don’t win the Premer League for 20 years, now they want another.” he