The Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has strangely stated that he will be supporting Manchester United when they will be taking on Real Madrid in the last 16 stage of the Champions League. Mancini has said that he is hoping that the Champions league progression for United will be a blessing in disguise for City because it will be a distraction for the Red Devils. United have a massive advantage over City in the table. They are the odds on favourite to win the title this season. Mancini has said that playing against Real Madrid will certainly not be easy because they are one of the best teams in the world.
It was not long ago that City played against Madrid in the group stages of the competition. Due to tough nature of the group, City were unable to progress of the group stages. Even though it led to a lot of criticism for the manager, he is hoping that it will turn into a blessing this time around. City will have a lot of time to concentrate on the Premier league because they only have the FA Cup as the other competition in the remainder of the season. United, on the other hand, will have to focus on 3 competitions.
“Yes, it would be another two games for them. I will go there and support them with a red-and-white flag. But playing Real is tough — they are one of the best in the world. Them and Barca. They have incredible players, fantastic history. It will be very hard for United to beat them because they are a really top club. If we could do it last year when we were eight points behind with six games to go, it’s not impossible that we can recover this with 14 games left,” said Mancini.