Real Madrid Shouldn’t Be In Champions League

Manchester City star Savinho said that neither his club nor Real Madrid should be in the Champions League playoffs during an interview conducted ahead of their first leg meeting at that point of the competition.

The reigning English and Spanish champions failed to finish in the top of eight of the UCL’s new-look league phase, and must now face off for a chance to reach the 16 after previously meeting in more advanced stages such as the semifinals and quarterfinals in recent years.

For the Brazilian, however, both teams should have done better in Europe. “I think we, as Manchester City, can’t play in the play-offs,” he said to the club’s official website.

“We should be getting into the next round more convincingly and not find ourselves in a play-off against Real Madrid – and it’s worth mentioning that Real Madrid, with all the weight their shirt carries, shouldn’t be in the play-offs either, with all due respect to the other teams. So, we have to be very careful in that regard,” he added.

Though he met them in La Liga last season on loan at Girona, this will be the first time the tricky winger has done battle with Madrid for an employer he joined last summer.

“As I mentioned to my family, I’ll be fulfilling a dream,” Savinho said. “I always watched Manchester City vs Real Madrid on the TV back when I was playing for Atletico Mineiro, and now, I get to be here living this moment.

“There was nowhere to run, it was either Bayern [Munich]

or Real Madrid, two great teams, and we got Real Madrid.”

Savinho revealed that he “spoke to Bernardo (Silva) and even to Real Madrid players while on international duty with them, and they said sometimes because of the strength of their badge, let’s say they’re trailing 2-0, 3-0 and the game is not over, they know they can do what they did in the last Champions League campaign at any time – pull off a comeback in the final five minutes of the match.

“So, we must remain focused and score goals when we get the opportunities, as that will be quite important, too,” Savinho insisted.

“It’s a lesson I learned at Girona. We played really, really well, but we didn’t convert our chances, and when an opportunity presented itself to them, they killed the game off.”