(Reuters) – Manchester City will be “unstoppable” at home when they host Real Madrid in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final, winger Jack Grealish said.
City earned a 1-1 draw in the first leg in the Spanish capital on Tuesday after Kevin De Bruyne’s stunning low strike cancelled out Vinicius Jr’s opener for Real.
The reigning Premier League champions are unbeaten at home since November and will hope to stretch that record in the second leg on May 17.
“At the Etihad, we feel unstoppable,” Grealish told BT Sport. “We came here (at the Bernabeu) to try to win, but it shows our character to go a goal down in a place like this.
“In the end, I think it was a fair result. They had their chances, we had a few.”
City are chasing the treble, having booked their berth in the FA Cup final and leading the league standings by one point with four games left.
Grealish said the team “learned so much” since they were knocked out by Real in the Champions League semi-finals last season.
“We have a new team this year, different players… We have the perfect balance of experience and world-class youngsters,” the England international added.
Real goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois said the second leg will be like a “final” for the Spanish side, who are record 14-times Champions League winners.
“Next week will be like a final, and we are quite good at winning finals,” Courtois said. “Hopefully we can mentalise it like that even though it is at City and it will be tough for us.”
(Reporting by Pearl Josephine Nazare in Bengaluru; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
