Raheem Sterling requested videos of last season’s Tottenham defeat as motivation for Manchester City’s impressive 2-1 victory over Real Madrid, Gary Lineker has revealed.
The 25-year-old netted his 100th goal for City as Pep Guardiola’s side steamrolled into the quarter-finals of the Champions League with a with a 2-1 win over the LaLiga champions.
Getty Images
City condoned Zinedine Zidane to a first defeat as a manager in a knockout game thanks to goals from Sterling and Gabriel Jesus and the Premier League side will now play Lyon in a one-off match in Lisbon next Saturday as the remainder of the competition is played as a mini-tournament.
Lineker revealed that Sterling asked for a video of City’s defeat to Tottenham at the quarter-final stage last season in the hope of motivating his squad to defeat Real in the last-16 clash.
Getty Images
Lineker said: “I don’t know whether I’m supposed to share this or whether it’s supposed to be a secret, but he actually got in touch with BT to ask for the video of last season’s game against Tottenham Hotspur that they lost.
“Not just to see his performance but he wanted to get that feeling back of losing and what it meant.
“It just shows you how much thought goes into his game – so he wanted to make sure it didn’t happen again I suppose.”
Getty Images
Guardiola’s men were on course for a quadruple when they came up against Spurs last year.
However, the Citizens lost 1-0 to Spurs in the first leg at Tottenham Hotspur stadium, and crashed out on away goals despite winning 4-3 in the return at the Etihad.
And after City’s win, the Spanish boss reaffirmed his determination to finally lift the European Cup this time around.
He said: “I am more than satisfied, of course, especially for the players to go to Portugal and try to make the next step. We know exactly which team we beat, so we are incredibly satisfied.
“In the first half we tried to play and attack but it was not possible with the quality from the opponents.
“In the second half it helped to play with wingers wider. We showed to opponents what we wanted to do and we created enough chances.
“I think it is more than deserved to be in the next stage.”
from Football - news, transfers, fixtures, scores, pictures https://ift.tt/3ioeS7M
via IFTTT
No Comment