Ruben Dias offers honest truth on Manchester City’s “very frustrating” defeat to Real Madrid | OneFootball

Manchester City vice-captain Ruben Dias has issued an honest take on the club’s dramatic 2-3 defeat to Real Madrid on Tuesday night.

The Premier League champions find themselves once again in a precarious position in Europe’s premier club competition, just weeks after scraping themselves into a play-off position for the last-16 during the initial league phase.

Coming back from behind on matchday eight against Club Brugge, City managed to win 3-1 at the Etihad Stadium to finish 22nd in the European league and book themselves a double-header against either Bayern Munich or Real Madrid, with the latter confirmed via a draw.

But having led the first-leg tie against Carlo Ancelotti’s side on Tuesday night with only a matter of minutes remaining in the contest, City conceded twice in quick succession and now know they must win via a two-goal advantage in the Spanish capital to progress.

Speaking to reporters after City’s defeat to the Spanish giants on Tuesday, vice-captain Ruben Dias admitted that while the loss was no doubt ‘upsetting’ and “frustrating”, the tie rides on belief from within the Etihad Stadium camp.

“I’m just upset. It’s frustrating. It’s always going to be a different kind of game between us and them, and in the end there’s chances both ways and you end up playing the last minutes at 2-1 and you cannot let it go. We have to do better, simple as that,” Dias said.

“In the end, we can say all we want but you cannot allow it. Now it’s a matter of belief; how much do we believe in ourselves, how much do we believe we can go through.

“We know exactly the game we’re going to play there, we’ve been there before, and it will only be about how much we believe in ourselves.”

Looking ahead to next week’s second-leg clash in the Spanish capital, Ruben Dias insisted that nothing is impossible for him and his teammates depending on the level of belief that is within the camp going into the contest.

“The good thing at the end of the day is this team, this club, if we believe enough in ourselves, and believe enough that we’re going to win, we can do everything. And we have enough gun power to pull off anything. But we need to believe in it. If we don’t believe in it then… yeah.”

The big games just keep on coming for Manchester City at the moment and they welcome Newcastle United to the Etihad Stadium on Saturday afternoon looking to strengthen their case for a top-four finish against the side one place below them in sixth position.