Ferdinand explains why Man City's nightmare UCL draw is a GOOD thing

Manchester City's rock-solid Champions League draw is a actually a good thing for them, according to Rio Ferdinand.

The Premier League champions will face either Real Madrid or Bayern Munich in the knock-out play-offs after scraping in via a 3-1 win over Club Bruges.

Madrid knocked them out of Europe last season, but City trounced both Los Blancos and Bayern on their way to the title in 2022-23.

And Ferdinand believes it is a strong chance for City to make a statement to the elite and shake off the rust from a patchy league phase.

'It's a chance to remind everyone who you are and what you are about, the quality that you have in your team, and that you have the ability to beat any team in the world on your day,' Ferdinand told TNT Sports.

'Sometimes it does take a tie like this to remember exactly who you are as a team,' said presenter Reshmin Chowdhury.

Many heavyweights have had to settle for a place in the intermediate stage before the last 16, with Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain also in the mix.

Only the top eight teams from the league phase have qualified automatically for the last 16, meaning the next 16 clubs have to battle out for the remaining spots.

Guardiola already believes City have re-discovered their soul after the cmeback against Bruges.

Raphael Onyedika put the Belgian champions 1-0 up on the stroke of half-time, but Mateo Kovacic equalised early after the break with a brilliant solo goal.

An own goal by Joel Ordonez put City 2-1 up and substitute Savinho sealed the result with his first European goal in the 77th minute.

‘We were 45 minutes away from being out,’ Guardiola said. ‘We were out but when you play with nothing to lose, you go forward.

‘Sometimes when you’re winning you’re scared of what you could lose. We had nothing to lose. In the second half we lifted our soul and our hearts were free.’

‘All of them are better than us right now but I don’t know what will happen in two weeks,’ the Catalan added.

‘We take nothing for granted. In two weeks we’ll be better than we are. New signings, players will come back. We’ll see how we arrive.

‘I don’t know if they are happy to play against us. We’ll face them. One is the king of the competition, the other is the second or third king.

‘My wish was to have the team back, fit. We played this competition with a thousand problems. Tomorrow the mindset, the vibes, change and I’m pretty sure we will create problems to Madrid or Munich. These players have something special.’

City's hopes in the Champions League were ended at the Etihad on penalties last season by Real Madrid.

That was viewed as something of a shock at the time, despite Madrid's European pedigree, as they were seen to have aweaker team than in previous campaigns.

But they ultimately emerged triumphant to lift their 15th Champions League trophy with a 2-0 win over Borussia Dortmund in the final.