‘I think we are going through’ - Defiant Bernardo Silva backs Man City to beat Real Madrid

A confident Bernardo Silva said he thinks Manchester City are ‘going through’ when they face Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-finals.

The Blues progressed to the last four of the competition on Wednesday night after a 1-1 draw against Bayern Munich in the Allianz Arena handed City a 4-1 aggregate win over two legs. It means Pep Guardiola’s men will face Real in the semi-finals for the second season in a row, with the Spaniards famously eliminating City last season thanks to a dramatic late comeback in the second leg at the Bernabeu.

But Silva is confident that City can beat the European champions when they meet next month. “Hopefully, yes,” Silva said on BT Sport, when asked if he wanted revenge for last season’s dramatic exit.

“We know how tough it is to play Real in this competition. We are going to go for it, we always go for it. We feel the team is very confident at the minute and I think we are going through.”

City’s capitulation last season was the latest in a recurring theme of disappointing exits from the Champions League. But Silva said the Blues have learnt from previous eliminations and, after City progressed to the semi-finals with a lower possession over two legs than Bayern, he explained what has changed in the dressing room.

“In the Champions League we learn from our mistakes of the past and what we understand now - before we used to think ‘we need to be 90 minutes dominating the game and controlling in the final third’.

“This competition, when you play against Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, PSG, Barcelona, Liverpool, you need to accept that sometimes you have to defend. You have to be consistent and work hard not to give them easy chances and that’s what we’ve been trying to work on in the present because in the past we have had a lot of frustrating nights because of that.”

The draw in Munich extends City’s upbeat run in all competitions to 15 matches, with the Premier League champions winning the 10 games prior to Wednesday night. The team are certainly in their groove at present and Silva said they’re playing the best football of the season so far.

“[We feel] very confident, in a very good moment, the best moment of the season for the team,” explained the Portugal midfielder. “We have struggled until February because we couldn’t get in that usual run that we had in the past years of winning 10,15,20 games in a row. Now the team is very consistent with the way we play. We feel we have a chance in every competition and we are going for them.”