Manchester City are seeking to become just the fifth home team to overturn a deficit of at least three goals in the Champions League knockout stages, but Pep Guardiola admitted his side do not have much chance of overcoming Real Madrid.
Los Blancos ran out 3–0 winners at the Bernabéu on Wednesday, with Federico Valverde’s stunning hat trick putting City on the brink of elimination and leaving Guardiola facing an uphill battle to avoid a humiliating exit.
“It is a bad result, we cannot deny it,” Guardiola reflected.
Rating his side’s chance of a comeback, the City boss added: “Now, not much but I’m not a guy to say we’re not going to try.
“Now it is most difficult [moment] to live but our mindset is we will look [at] what to do better, try to be more active in the final third and we will try.”
Every Home Team to Overturn Deficit of Three Goals or More
Deportivo La Coruña 4-0 AC Milan (2003–04)
The first home team to ever come back from three goals down in the Champions League knockout stages was Deportivo La Coruña, who were deservedly thumped 4–1 by AC Milan in the first leg before pulling out a true miracle.
With an away goal in the bank from the first leg, Deportivo actually turned things around in just the first half of the second leg, roaring into an early 3–0 lead before removing any doubt about the result with a late effort from Fran González.
Barcelona 6–1 PSG (2016–17)
Perhaps the most famous comeback in Champions League history belongs to Barcelona, the only home team to ever overturn a four-goal deficit in the knockout stages of Europe’s top competition.
A 4–0 defeat away at the Parc des Princes left Barcelona facing an impossible battle against Paris Saint-Germain, whose solitary strike in the second leg looked to be sneaking them through before Sergi Roberto struck in the fifth minute of stoppage time to seal a win so famous it became known as La Remontada—The Comeback.
Roma 3–0 Barcelona (2017–18)
Twelve months after that iconic victory, Barcelona found themselves on the receiving end of a comeback when they let a 4–1 lead slip away against Roma.
Kostas Manolas headed home in the 82nd minute to spark bedlam in Rome and produce one of the greatest commentary lines in competition history from Peter Drury: “Roma have risen from their ruins! Manolas, the Greek God in Rome! The unthinkable unfolds before our eyes.”
Liverpool 4–0 Barcelona (2018–19)
Clearly, Barcelona used up all their good karma against PSG as they produced a second monumental collapse in as many years when they threw away a 3–0 advantage over Liverpool in the 2018–19 semifinals.
A quickly taken corner for Divock Origi sits towards the top of the mountain of memorable Champions League moments.
Bernardo Silva Doesn’t Hold Back in Assessment of Harrowing Defeat
Like Guardiola, outspoken midfielder Bernardo Silva was in no mood to sugarcoat City’s chances of joining that illustrious group of comebacks.
“At 3–0 it makes it a bit more difficult,” he reflected. “Now it feels really bad, now it feels really dark. But tomorrow is another day and for sure next week we will go to the game thinking we have a chance.”
He added: “The environment we couldn’t control. I think my team let emotions change the game. We felt comfortable, finding the right spaces, but after conceding the first we completely lost the control, stopped controlling transitions and second balls. When you play against Real Madrid with the quality they have, you pay the price.
“It’s a tough stadium. We’re used to playing at these stadiums because Anfield, St James’s Park is very tough. You need to go through these moments to become better and today was just a learning game for the whole team.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Pep Guardiola Rates Man City’s Chances of Miraculous Champions League Comeback.
