“Always the motivation is to play the semifinal of the Champions League”, said Pellegrini, who will be replaced as City boss by Bayern Munich coach Pep Guardiola at the end of the season.
Advertisement
Bayern under Guardiola also has a strong Spanish influence and familiarity with Atletico’s style. They are considered a nightmare to play against with tactician Diego Simeone leading them.
The other semi-final sees Atletico Madrid host Bayern Munich in the first leg, before the tie is decided in Germany. “It will be very hard, but we will compete to the maximum like we always do”.
Real, who won that game 4-1 in extra-time, will play first-time semi-finalists Manchester City, with the first leg in Manchester.
These teams have only met twice in European competition, when they were in the same group during the 2012-13 campaign. The winners of the tie between City and Madrid will be the home team in the final. PSG were more solid defending and attacking and then we saw the final result.
Begiristain added: “They have shown that in the second leg at the Bernabeu they can be unstoppable”. It is easy to say they have all the pressure because they are a big team and we are “invited” only to the semi-final but I don’t think that is the way.
“We are optimistic, but I repeat the key is solidity”.
Pellegrini is happy it’s Real and not Barcelona blocking City’s path to the final in Milan after going out to Barca for the past two years.
As with the Champions League the only place to watch the semi-finals and final from St. Jakob-Park will be live on BT Sport.
“We’re delighted to be in the semis and to keep dreaming”, he said.
“We need to focus in the two games”.
“The positive thing is that we play the return at home”.
Atletico, meanwhile, ousted last year’s victor Barcelona 3-2 on aggregate to make it to the semis.
Advertisement
Real looked to be staring elimination in the face in the last round, only for Cristiano Ronaldo’s second-leg hat-trick to give it a 3-2 aggregate victory over Wolfsburg, having lost the first leg 2-0 in Germany.
