Real Madrid secured a 3-2 victory in the first leg, setting a favorable stage for the upcoming home leg at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.
Following City's 4-0 Premier League win against Newcastle, Guardiola stated his team's chances of progressing are only "1%".
“He doesn’t really think that,” Ancelotti said on Tuesday in a pre-match news conference. “Tomorrow I’ll ask him before the match if he really thinks that they only have a 1% chance. He thinks he has more than that, just as we don’t think that we have only a 99% chance. We know that we have an advantage, and we have to make the most of it.”
Manager Ancelotti stated that he does not subscribe to the practice of minimizing his team's advantage. He explained that claiming to prepare as if the score were 0-0 would be disingenuous, as the 3-2 scoreline is an undeniable fact.
He emphasized the need to maintain the same playing style as the previous week, while acknowledging and leveraging their current lead.
In his sixteen seasons as a manager—four at Barcelona, three at Bayern Munich, and nine at Manchester City—Guardiola has consistently guided his teams to the Champions League Round of 16.
The 2012-13 season marks City's last absence from this stage. However, acknowledging City's recent underperformance, Guardiola stated that this factor must be considered.
He explicitly noted, "This season, we have been significantly behind. The results have been unsatisfactory."
Real Madrid defeated Manchester City in last year's quarterfinals and secured a 3-1 extra-time victory in the 2022 semifinals. On both occasions, Manager Ancelotti's team proceeded to win the championship, increasing the club's record to fifteen Champions League titles.
Carlo Ancelotti will have central defender Antonio Rüdiger available, as he has fully recovered from the muscle injury that sidelined him in recent weeks. In the match against Manchester City last week, Ancelotti had to rely on an improvised defensive lineup that had never played together before.
Ferland Mendy, young talent Raúl Asencio, and midfielders Aurélien Tchouaméni and Federico Valverde were tasked with defensive duties during the match in England.
Ancelotti indicated that Rüdiger is fit to start on Wednesday, although he did not specify whether he would take the place of Tchouaméni or the 22-year-old Asencio.
This marks the fourth consecutive season that these teams have met in the Champions League, with City having triumphed in the semifinals two seasons ago on their way to securing their first European title.