 "Cristiano Ronaldo had helped Real Madrid win multiple Champions League titles in addition to other trophies during his nine-year stint with the iconic Spanish club. Image: Cristiano Ronaldo on X")
Defending European and Spanish champions Real Madrid will be facing defending English champions Manchester City in the knockouts for the fourth consecutive year when the two giants lock horns in a two-legged playoff tie later this month.
Neither 15-time winners Madrid nor City, who had finally ended their UCL jinx in 2023 by defeating Inter Milan in the final, managed to qualify directly for the Round of 16 in the elite European football tournament whose format has undergone a makeover this season.
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And 10 days before City host the first of those two legs at the Etihad Stadium, an old comment by Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo in which he predicts Pep Guardiola’s men will be scared of Madrid is going viral on social media.
Ronaldo, who currently plays for Saudi Pro League club Al-Nassr, however backed City to come out of their sharp decline this season and possibly even win the Champions League for a second time.
“Well, in football you never know what’s going to happen,” Ronaldo had said at the Globe Soccer Awards in Dubai on 27 December.
“The teams have moments, difficult times, good times and what, for example, City pass through this moment is a difficult time but I’m sure, 100 per cent that they will be back.
As for his “scared” comment, ‘CR7’ added that it was something that all teams experienced when playing at Madrid’s home ground, the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in the Spanish capital.
“It’s like Madrid, people don’t expect that they’ve been so brilliant in the beginning but they are not too bad, they are there, two points in front of Barcelona and they say it’s a bad season, I don’t understand why they say these kind of things.
“Every player, every team they have a rash moment but they will come back all the time. And Madrid, if you have to bet to win the Champions League again I would bet Real Madrid because you never know what’s going to happen.
“At the Bernabeu it’s different, all the teams are scared when they play there, this is a fact, history says that, and never consider Madrid dead because they always come back, City as well,” added Ronaldo, one of the greatest footballers of all time who had spent a majority of his club career at Madrid.
Madrid had finished 11th in the 36-team table with 15 points after winning five and losing three in the league phase of the tournament. While Los Blancos currently lead the LaLiga standings, City have been having a forgettable season outright.
Not only are their hopes of a fifth consecutive Premier League title virtually over at this point, they narrowly avoided getting eliminated from the Champions League altogether by finishing 22nd with 11 points from eight games.