Last Updated: Mon, 19 Nov 2012 13:02
Roberto Mancini says Manchester City must improve to beat Real Madrid while his son has taken a swipe at Bernabeu boss Jose Mourinho.
Mancini knows City must win both of their remaining Champions League group games and hope for other results to go their way for the Premier League champions to sneak into the knockout stages.
And despite seeing City dismantle a poor Aston Villa side 5-0 at the weekend, the Italian coach knows his side will have take their game to the next level to defeat Cristiano Ronaldo and co.
"They are one of the best teams in the world. To beat them we will have to give a perfect performance," Mancini said. "We will have to play even better than we did against Aston Villa, if we are to beat Real. That's what it is going to take.
"They have a big history going back. They've won a lot of Champions Leagues. We need to work a lot to be at their level but I do think we have the players who can beat them. It is possible.
"If you have players who have won World Cups, like (David) Silva - or won everything like Yaya (Toure) - then playing against Real Madrid is the essence of football.
"When you are young and start to play football you think I would love to play against Real Madrid, Barcelona. Big players like the big challenges but we will need perfect concentration for this game."
Mancini's son Andrea, who is playing for Real Valladolid's reserve team in Spain, has stoked up the clash in the dugout by claiming that his father knows more about football than Mourinho.
"My dad was a player for many years, and it shows," he said.
"He has a lot of experience and knows more about football than Mourinho. Mourinho is more of a psychologist, more of a motivator, he knows how to manage the minds of the players. The ideal coach would be a mixture of both."
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