Manuel Pellegrini has a confession to make. When he greeted the Champions League draw with relief and said Real Madrid were the team he wanted to play, it was not because he still holds a grudge against his former employers, nor because he was glad to have escaped a direct confrontation with Pep Guardiola’s Bayern Munich.
Why Real Madrid’s Gareth Bale is more settled in Spain than ever
Sid Lowe

Read more
That may still happen, of course, should neither of the two Madrid teams in the last four make it to the final but Pellegrini would be happy to accept that challenge. “I did not want Bayern Munich or Atlético Madrid at the semi-final stage but, if the draw had given us Atlético, I would have said I didn’t want to play against Bayern or Real Madrid,” he explains. “The truth is that when you reach the last four you must have confidence and trust in your own ability. You can be lucky with your opponents in earlier rounds but in the semi-final it doesn’t really matter which team you get. You know it is going to be very difficult.”
The Manchester City manager makes no secret of his belief that Barcelona were the most dangerous team in the competition and basically any semi-final opponent was going to be acceptable once they were eliminated. City have stumbled against Barcelona in the Champions League in the past but Pellegrini’s memory cannot help but ...... <<< read more >>> www.9jasportbet..com