Pep Guardiola believes that his Manchester City team enter their Champions League last 16 tie with Real Madrid in a better place compared to 12 months ago.
City make the trip to Estadio Bernabeu on Wednesday sitting second in the Premier League, as well as reaching the final of the EFL Cup and the last eight of the FA Cup.
And they come up against a familiar European foe in Madrid, with this the fifth consecutive season that the two sides have met in UEFA's flagship competition.
City's latest meeting will be their 16th against Los Blancos in the Champions League, twice as often as they have faced any other team in the competition (Bayern Munich - eight).
The Citizens have also been eliminated from the Champions League by Madrid on four occasions, the only side to knock them out more than twice.
That includes in each of the last two seasons, in the 2023-24 quarter-finals and the 2024-25 play-offs, though Guardiola believes his team are better equipped this time around.
"We arrive better in terms of where we are with the squad. Last season we arrived with a lot of fatigue and had few players available," Guardiola told reporters.
"When you have everybody fit and playing in a lot of competitions and games, it is better to rotate. Fresh legs and fresh minds."
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— Manchester City (@ManCity) March 10, 2026
Guardiola will take charge of his 190th UEFA Champions League match here, equalling Manchester United's Sir Alex Ferguson's total in the competition (190).
Following this fixture, Guardiola will only trail former Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti (218) on the list of most Champions League games by managers.
However, the Citizens will have their work cut out in the Spanish capital, given the last away team to keep a clean sheet in a Champions League knockout stage game away to Madrid was Barcelona in April 2011.
But the manager of the Blaugrana on that day was Guardiola, though Madrid have since scored in 39 in a row, averaging 2.2 goals per match (86 in total).
"Emotions come when you play bad or your opponents play better," Guardiola added on playing at the Bernabeu once again.
"It is not the first time we are here. We have come many times and a lot of players know [the stadium]. For sure, good things cannot happen if you are not yourselves."
Only Bayern (eight) and Juventus (seven) have won more Champions League games against Madrid than City (five), who beat them 2-1 in this season's league phase.
And City are given a 69% chance of reaching the quarter-finals, behind only Bayern (80%) and Arsenal (87%) by the Opta supercomputer, though goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma tempered his teams expectations of a second European crown.
"I think there are some teams that can make it to the final, there are many strong and tough teams," Donnarumma said.
"If you speak about last season, before the round of 16, nobody thought that PSG could be a strong candidate to win the final, but things can change overnight.
"It depends on the timing and how fit the team is. Right now we are about to play games whether you are in or out. You need to manage things properly.
"You have two games, sometimes you don't have to put so many things at risk. Every single detail can make a difference.
"In the Champions League, details are everything and they can make the difference.
There are many teams that can win the Champions League. We will try to move on and make it to the end, but there are very strong teams that can do the same."