Manchester City manager picked Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool as his toughest test ahead of Real Madrid. The Cityzens suffered a 2-1 loss in the second-leg of the round of 16 in the UEFA Champions League at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday.

The Sky Blues suffered an aggregate loss of 5-1 after losing 3-0 in the first leg against Los Blancos while playing away from home. It’s the third consecutive season that Guardiola’s City have been eliminated by the 15-time European champions but the Spaniard refused to admit that Madrid have been his greatest rivals.

“No, my biggest challenge was Jürgen Klopp with Liverpool, in these years here,” Guardiola told a Spanish journalist. “You were in Spain, you didn’t realise what that competition was.”

“It’s been a good learning experience for the club, because this is a club that 12 or 13 years ago was never in Europe. Playing so many times against Real Madrid, with the generation we’ve had, we’ve done it.

“They’ve won, we’ve won. The numbers are similar, they’ve knocked us out more than we have them. But they know how we’ve played.”

Guardiola has registered 14 wins, 6 draws, and 10 losses against Real Madrid, including his earlier stints with Barcelona and Bayern Munich.

On the other hand, Real Madrid defender Trent Alexander-Arnold was delighted with the team’s win.

“It was nice to win here, to get one over on them,” he told Prime Video Sport.

“They’ve snatched a lot of Premier League medals away from me and Liverpool. I’ve always enjoyed playing here, I’ve always felt like they’re the biggest games, City are a top club. Our mentality was to come here and win.”

Madrid will play either Bayern Munich or Atalanta in the quarterfinals.