Manchester City are looking forward to a Champions League semi-final with Real Madrid, and expect them to play differently to city rivals Atletico.
City had to fight to edge past Atletico 1-0 on aggregate, with Diego Simeone's side spending the majority of the quarter-final operating a very low block, with plenty of attempts to provoke Blues players and influence the referee.
According to midfielder Rodri, City's dressing room is expecting another tough game, but that the semi-final will be a different challenge to the two legs with Atletico.
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"We expect another tough team, another way of playing," Rodri told CityTV. "Real Madrid, but we think about it when we face them, let's think about Liverpool.
"It's massive for us to go through [to the semi-finals]. We go to the next game with confidence. We need to recover because they are so demanding games. I'm sure on Saturday we'll be in the best shape.
"It's very tough, the calendar is crazy, we have two games with Atletico, against Liverpool. Now we have Liverpool again. It's too many games and difficult games, but it is what it is. We have to recover and give the best shape in the next game."
Regarding the Atletico battles, Rodri explained how City players are proud of how they fought and did their talking with the ball across the two legs.
"We're very proud. We did a great two games against a very tough opponent, very tough defenders," he explained.
"We compete until the end. They have the weapons of the stadium. I know them very well — they push until the end, and we suffer which is normal.
"Sometimes people get confused that we're always going to play beautiful but it's not like this. They have good players and punish you. We were good and an unbelievable competitive mentality and we got through.
“I think we grow a lot in this sense these last years and we need to keep improving as we are going to live moments like this in the next games for sure. We need to be together with a strong mentality and to never give up. that is the way.”
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