Real Madrid’s director of institutional relations, Emilio Butragueno, says the team must be at their best to beat Manchester City in the Champions League semi finals.
Los Blancos drew the Citizens in the last four after overcoming Wolfsburg and will face their former boss in Manuel Pellegrini.
The pair have met in the Champions League before – Real defeated them at the Santiago Bernabeu and drew at the Etihad Stadium in the group stages of the 2012-13 campaign. The semi final stage is also uncharted territory for City while Los Blancos have won the competition 10 times in their history.
However, speaking after the draw, Butragueno said the sides are evenly matched and Zidane’s players will need to be at their best for the two games.
“They will be evenly matched. Manchester City has match-winning players. They will be highly motivated. We have to play at our best over the two games. In Germany, we lost concentration for ten minutes and lost the game, so we have to be more focussed. I remember being here this time last year, and everyone said we’d had a lot of luck. After that, Juventus went on the eliminate us. There are always good teams in the semi-finals who have enough quality to face up to any challenge,” he said.
And he added: “We have to play well in the two games and the players must play their best game possible. The two matches will be very even. This is our sixth semi-final in a row and from experience we know it will not be easy. We therefore need to get a good result in Manchester.”
