After thrashing Newcastle 4-0 on Saturday, Pep Guardiola insisted that Manchester City have only a one per cent chance of ousting the record 15-time European Cup winners Real Madrid in the second leg of the UEFA Champions League playoff clash at the Santiago Bernabeu tonight.

City blew a late 2-1 lead in the first leg of the play-off tie last week at home to lose 3-2 to the title holders.

That collapse was part of a wider trend this season as Guardiola’s ageing squad have struggled to last the pace, particularly when the intensity is turned up on Champions League nights.

As a consequence, City broke with their usual transfer policy to spend big in January, bringing in Omar Marmoush, Abdukodir Khusanov, Vitor Reis and Nico Gonzalez for fees totalling £170 million ($214 million).

However, none of them started the first leg against Madrid. Marmoush was the only one to even make an appearance for the final few minutes off the bench, as Gonzalez and Khusanov were unused substitutes and Reis was not registered in City’s European squad.

But with all to play for tonight, Guardiola may now regret that decision after Marmoush, Gonzalez and Khusanov all played pivotal roles in arguably City’s best performance of the season last Saturday when Newcastle were blown away 4-0 at the Etihad.

Marmoush hogged the headlines thanks to his first-half hat-trick, finally offering City another potent scoring threat to compliment Erling Haaland.

Khusanov recovered from his nightmare Premier League debut against Chelsea last month when he gave away a goal inside three minutes and could have been sent-off shortly afterwards.

This time the Uzbek showed why City paid Lens a reported 40 million euros ($42 million) for his services.

The 20-year-old’s pace helped sniff out the danger posed by Newcastle’s Alexander Isak and could be what the visitors need to combat the threat of Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo in the Santiago Bernabeu clash this evening.

Guardiola, though, reserved special praise for the impact of Gonzalez in bringing the City midfield the stability they have lacked since Ballon d’Or winner Rodri suffered a serious knee injury in September.

The Barcelona academy graduate seems certain to start on his return to Spain with his manager already hailing the 23-year-old as a “mini Rodri.”

For Real Madrid Coach, Carlo Ancelotti, who insisted yesterday that his City counterpart, Guardiola, was deliberately underestimating the English side’s hopes of reaching the Champions League Last 16 by insisting that they have just one per cent chance in tonight’s clash in Spain.

“He does not truly think that, Wednesday I’ll ask him before the game – do you really think you’ve got a one per cent chance?” Ancelotti told a news conference ahead of the game yesterday.

“He really thinks they’ve got more chance than that… we don’t think we have 99 per cent chance.

Ancelotti confirmed defender Antonio Rudiger was fit to start for the holders after injury but Lucas Vazquez would only be ready for the bench.

The coach reiterated his frustration with Spanish refereeing, following some controversial decisions which went against his side in recent LaLiga matches.

Ancelotti said he was more comfortable with refereeing in the Champions League.

“Statistics speak for themselves, in Europe there’s less controversy in this sense, there are less VAR interventions,” said Ancelotti.

“The VAR only intervenes when it’s necessary, and usually the Champions League features the best referees from each country, so the quality is very high in this sense.”

England international Jude Bellingham was sent off for dissent during Madrid’s 1-1 draw at Osasuna on Saturday in LaLiga.

Bellingham’s teammate Federico Valverde said he did not want the midfielder to change his ways.