Another Treble is on the cards for City if they can survive against Real Madrid

Once Manchester City had finished the training session that would define the tactical approach to their night of immortality, Pep Guardiola gathered the squad in a huddle.

He is generally a bit more aggressive on the grass at home than inside stadiums, reasoning that attempting to rile up players on matchdays is a futile exercise. They either want it or they don’t; little he can say at that point will make much difference.

But a day out from flying to Istanbul for the Champions League final last June, Guardiola gave it some. He lost it in a way that emphasized how Inter Milan were no pushovers and made clear the magnitude of what City could achieve.

‘Let me be clear. It’s going to be uncomfortable — you know I’m f****** right,’ he shouted, pushing a couple of them. ‘It’s once in a lifetime. This situation, we’re not going to live it again. Once in 150 years of English football. One time. Just one team that did it.’

Little did he know, though, that 10 months on, the T word would be resurfacing. The idea of winning another Treble has begun to crystalise after Liverpool’s draw at Manchester United on Sunday and, should City survive at the Bernabeu in Tuesday’s Champions League quarter-final first leg, it will only glint further.

Guardiola won’t entertain the idea but the possibility exists if City board their plane home still alive in this tie, the latest in their titanic tetralogy with Real Madrid. City have prevailed twice, in 2020 and last season, the performances 12 months ago fuelled by their capitulation in the Spanish capital a year prior.

Carlo Ancelotti, you suspect, will now use Madrid’s own surrender at the Etihad in last year’s semi-final second leg, when they were shellacked 4-0 as fuel. ‘Beating Real the same way