Manchester City’s Janine Beckie says that her side will not be underestimating Real Madrid in their UEFA Women’s Champions League Round 2 tie.
The Cityzens travel to Madrid for the first leg on Tuesday before welcoming David Aznar’s side to The Academy Stadium for the second leg on Wednesday 8 September.
The Whites are set to begin just their second campaign after taking over Madrid-based side CD Tacon in summer 2020 while their tie against Manchester City is their first-ever in the UEFA Women’s Champions League.
Manchester City have been dumped out of the UEFA Women’s Champions League by Spanish opposition in each of the last three seasons and Canadian Olympic Gold Medalist Beckie says that the club will not be underestimating the threat of a newly-formed Real Madrid outfit.
“It is going to be a really difficult two games,” she told FAWSL Full-Time in a Manchester City press conference. “It is easy to overlook them because they are new and not as big as Barcelona or Atletico Madrid but we are definitely not doing that. We have massive respect for them, they have some huge players and they are going to make it really difficult for us.
“You never know what can happen in the Champions League, especially this early on in the season. To be going into our first game against Real Madrid in a Champions League play-off is really high stakes. I definitely think that we can’t take them lightly, they are going to cause us problems but we believe as a team that if we go out there and stick to our process, do what we do, we should come out with a good result then perform against them at home.”
Given the fact that Manchester City have travelled to Madrid in two of the last three seasons, the prospect of another trip to the Spanish capital always seemed likely. Beckie went on to say that the tie was even predicted from within the camp.
She joked “I have to say that I am not surprised that we drew them. I think it was Vicky Losada who called it in our group chat before it actually happened that we would get them.
“It just seems to be something that happens to us. We love going to Madrid, we love playing Spanish opposition. I can’t say that I’m mad about going to the sun in Spain.”
The tie against Real Madrid is Manchester City’s first involvement in this season’s new-look UEFA Women’s Champions League. The winners of the two-legged tie will qualify for the group stage of the competition where they will be joined by Chelsea and potentially Arsenal.
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