Real Madrid s Welsh wizard Gareth Bale says Manchester City have earned the right to be considered part of the Champions League elite, but expects his side to triumph in their semi-final second leg.
Bale said Madrid s maturity and experience at this level of the competition makes them confident of progression, after the two sides played out a 0-0 draw in Manchester on Tuesday.
I was impressed by City, said Bale.
You can see they are a very good team and they have some great players, we know a lot about them and we watch them all the time in Spain.
Obviously, I ve also played against them before and they are a really strong team, but so are we. The semi-final is really nicely poised for the second leg.
They definitely belong among the European elite now. They are here on merit. They haven’t got here by luck.
I m surprised they haven t got to this stage of the Champions League a little earlier, but they have great players, the club is still growing and they are going to be a force to be reckoned with.
Bale himself had a tough time of it on Tuesday, restricted to a number of long-range shots.
He expected City to be strong defensively again, but said the game was bound to open up as both sides chased a win.
They are going to be extremely difficult to play in the second leg, but we’re confident we can win, Bale said.
I don t know if we will think we are favourites, but we know everybody likes to put those tags on games like this. I think it will be another evenly contested game and a very difficult one.
I definitely think we are more mature as a team now [than the one that won the Champions League in 2014].
We have more experience and that showed against City.
It was important to keep a clean sheet and not let the lead slip away in the first leg. We ve done that and it s very difficult playing away from home in the Champions League, but we will take them back home now.
