Pep Guardiola challenged Jack Grealish to prove he is more than just an FA Cup player by helping Manchester City keep their Champions League hopes alive against Real Madrid.
Grealish, 29, has scored just one goal all season for Guardiola’s team — a penalty in the 8-0 FA Cup third round win against League Two side Salford City — and his loss of form extends to last season which saw him miss out on a place in England’s Euro 2024 squad.
The £100 million signing from Aston Villa is in Guardiola’s squad for the Champions League Playoff second leg against Madrid. And with City trailing 3-2 from last week’s first leg at the Etihad, Guardiola said he needs Grealish to prove he can perform at the top level again
“He [Grealish] is able to play a really good game like in the FA Cup, but not the consistency to play every week with three games,” Guardiola said. “It is the same with six games in two weeks.
“He was not able to do it, but hopefully in the three and a half months we have before the end of the season, he can get it.”
City face Madrid for the third consecutive season in the Champions League, having beaten Carlo Ancelotti’s side on the way to winning the competition in 2023 before losing to the Spanish giants in last season’s quarterfinal.
Bernardo Silva missed the decisive spot kick in the penalty shootout defeat against Madrid, but the midfielder said he would take another penalty if tomorrow’s game goes to a shootout again.
“Definitely, I would put my hand up,” Bernardo said. “You can only miss a penalty if you take it. The keeper was waiting for it down the middle. I have no regrets.
“If it has to go to penalties we’ll do our best and qualify. We know that people we’re speaking 50-50 at the start and maybe now Madrid are favourites. We have much tougher work to do, but we believe we can make things difficult. They have a lot of weapons to hurt us.
“A team is never perfect; Madrid, City, there is no perfect team. There’s always a way to find weaknesses. There are things they don’t do that well. It’s about finding the way to bring the game to a place we feel more comfortable with. You’ll always suffer, we’ll try to suffer as little as possible.”
