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A Manchester City player arrived at the team’s hotel in Madrid just hours before his side are due to play Real Madrid in their must-win Champions League tie on Wednesday evening, according to reports in Spain.
Pep Guardiola’s side are facing an unthinkable second-half of the season without European football after stuttering form in their league phase of the top-flight competition.
Man City were then drawn against Spanish giants Real for their play-off tie, and must claw their way back from a one-goal deficit after 3-2 defeat at the Etihad last week.
Erling Haaland’s brace was not enough to give the hosts the upper hand on home soil with Jude Bellingham netting the late winner to hand the advantage to Carlo Ancelotti’s players.
Victory at the Bernabeu will ensure a place in the round of 16 – but in his press conference on Tuesday evening, Guardiola said that the team’s chance of earning one was just ‘one per cent’.
But while Guardiola and his men made their way to the Spanish capital in good time to ensure a full night’s sleep ahead of the crunch clash, one player was captured arriving at the hotel conspicuously late.
A Manchester City star was caught arriving at the team’s Madrid hotel in the early hours of Wednesday morning
The player, wearing a blue hooded top, arrived separately from Pep Guardiola’s Champions League squad
January signing Abdukodir Khusanov was seen entering the Cityzen’s hotel in the Spanish capital at 12.40am by the cameras of Spanish programme El Chiringuito, despite the Uzbekistan star making Guardiola’s squad list.
The hosts of the show questioned whether the player was ‘okay’, but noted that he looked in good health and ‘arrived safely’.
Khusanov is yet to feature in Guardiola’s European side after his £33 million January move, but has been a consistent fixture since arriving from Lens during last month’s transfer window.
The defender started Man City’s weekend tie too, facing off against Newcastle in their romping 4-0 victory at the Etihad.
Guardiola was adamant on Tuesday that his side would have to attempt the impossible in a bid to secure their European future.
‘You have to make an almost perfect game,’ Guardiola said. ‘We have to play with courage, to be ourselves. We have to play to win the game. The pressure is there, it’s more than welcome.
£33m Abdukodir Khusanov was one of a number of Man City’s expensive January signings
The player trained with his team-mates in Manchester ahead of travelling to the Spanish capital
Guardiola was insistent that his players would have to pull off an ‘almost perfect’ performance
‘If you don’t perform well with the pressure, it is what it is. It depends how we play, how we handle the big moments in these stadiums.’
But in a positive boost for his side, Guardiola confirmed that Haaland, who suffered a knee injury scare late in Saturday’s defeat of Newcastle, trained as normal ahead of the game.
Jack Grealish, Ruben Dias and Nathan Ake, who were all absent at the weekend, were also involved.
‘They’ve travelled. We’ll see how they are but it’s good news they are here’, the Spaniard confirmed.
