City not afraid of Real Joe Hart
Joe Hart

Joe Hart

MANCHESTER. — Manchester City are set up to land Real Madrid a knock-out blow at the Bernabeu next week and earn a place in the Champions League final, Joe Hart said after his saves helped earn a 0-0 draw in Tuesday night’s first leg.

The England goalkeeper produced two incredible late stops at the Etihad Stadium to leave the tie hanging in the balance for next week’s second leg in the Spanish capital.

Ten-times winners Real have won six out of six at home in this year’s competition, racking up 18 goals without conceding, but Hart said he was relishing the challenge.

“We’ve set it up for a good, old-fashioned rumble at the Bernabeu,” said Hart, who made a superb point-blank save from Pepe late on shortly after sticking out a foot to block a goal-bound Casemiro header. “Bring it on.”

“We are not disappointed with the result. We are ready. We have a brilliant squad who are coming to fruition.

“Big game next week, simple as.”

City have already won at Sevilla in the group phase and in Kiev in the last 16 and also drew at Paris St Germain on their way past the French champions into the semi-finals.

Real, who should have their injured top scorer Ronaldo back next week after he was forced to sit out Tuesday’s opener with a thigh strain, will be a formidable hurdle, but City captain Vincent Kompany said the Spanish giants will be wary.

“0-0 is a very dangerous scoreline. From the moment we manage to score in Madrid, it will be very different,” he said.

Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini also vowed that his team would play with no fear in their Champions League soccer semi-final second leg against Real Madrid following a 0-0 first-leg draw.

Missing the injured Cristiano Ronaldo, Madrid created the better chances in Tuesday night’s game, but substitute Jese saw a header hit the bar and City goalkeeper Hart produced late saves to thwart Casemiro and Pepe.

City, appearing in their first semi-final, did not work visiting goalkeeper Keylor Navas until Kevin De Bruyne found the target with a stoppage-time free-kick, but Pellegrini said that his side would show a greater cutting edge in next week’s return leg in the Spanish capital.

“I don’t think they are favourites,” said the Chilean, who was sacked after only one season as Madrid head coach in 2010.

“We have the same option as Real Madrid. Of course they have the advantage to play the first game away, so they try to manage the tempo of the game.

“After that they finish at home. But this team play away very similar to how we play at the Etihad. We had good results playing away agaainst Paris Saint-Germain, against Dynamo Kiev and against Sevilla.

“We are not afraid to go to the Bernabeu and we will see which team plays better in that game.”

Pellegrini claimed that his side had shown the “most intent to win the game” and that Madrid had arrived at the Etihad Stadium “with a result in mind”.

His opposite number, Zinedine Zidane, contested the claim, asserting that his team “always go out to win”, but he agreed that neither side had procured an outright advantage.

“We could have scored a goal, but even with scoring a goal we would not have been sure of being in the final,” said the Frenchman, whose memorable volley against Bayer Leverkusen inspired Madrid to Champions League glory in 2002. — AFP.

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