Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva is not concerned about facing Real Madrid ahead of their Champions League semi-final clash on Tuesday. City met Real at the same stage of the competition last year and looked on course to progress to the final when Riyad Mahrez made it 5-3 on aggregate, but two late goals from Rodrygo sent the match to extra time.
Karim Benzema's penalty in the 95th minute secured Real's place in the final vs Liverpool, which they went on to win. 12 months on, the Blues return to the Bernabeu aiming to conquer their demons.
However, according to Bernardo, City are not concerned about facing Carlo Ancelotti's men again. "We have a lot of respect for them, yes, but not any fear at all," he said after the Blues beat Leeds United on Saturday.
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"Why should we fear them? We'll try to keep the momentum we've built over two months to arrive very confident to beat them, knowing they won the Champions League last season for a reason."
"It's not about the badge, it's never about the badge," Bernardo added. "It's about the players that are on the pitch.
"If Madrid didn't have [Luka] Modric, [Toni] Kroos, Vinicius, Benzema — I could say all of them — they wouldn't win anything because the shirt doesn't do it on its own. We'd be stupid not to respect them but we have that goal knowing we lost last year in tough circumstances.
"This time we will try to make it different."
The Champions League is the only trophy which Pep Guardiola has failed to win at the Etihad Stadium but Bernardo insists it is not their only goal this season.
"We're not going to lie, this is definitely a competition we want because it's the only one we haven't won yet," he concluded. "We're in a very good position to be fighting for all three trophies.
"The FA Cup final is a derby, it would be lovely for our fans. Then the Champions League is a trophy we'd really love, and the Premier League would be five in six years and we would go down in history.
"I wouldn't be able to tell you which one I want the most. I want them all, a lot.
"And we're going to keep battling away, knowing that, yes, we could win them all, yet we could lose them all too."
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