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What's the story?
Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva is hoping to avoid being drawn with Juventus in the Champions League quarter-finals because of Cristiano Ronaldo.
In case you didn't know...
Both Juventus and Manchester City progressed to the quarterfinals of the Champions League on the same night following record-breaking performances by the two football giants.
Ronaldo single-handedly helped his side overcome a two-goal deficit against Atletico Madrid on Tuesday night after scoring his eighth hat-trick in the competition. Meanwhile, City registered a thumping 7-0 win over Schalke to equal the record for the highest victory margin in a Champions League knockout game.
Silva has rubbed shoulders with Ronaldo when playing for the Portuguese national team and has infamously been dubbed by Pep Guardiola as the country's best player.
The heart of the matter
Bernardo has admitted that he does not want his team to meet Ronaldo in the Champions League because he knows how efficient the five-time Ballon d'Or winner is in the competition.
The midfielder said (via The Guardian), "I wouldn’t like it very much, to be honest. I know him, I know what he’s capable of and once again tonight he proved it."
"When you are playing in a competition like this you have to know that you can get drawn against these kinds of teams, these kinds of players."
"It is a good thing. It means you are playing the best competitions, the best games and we will see who we are playing against. Of course to play against Cristiano and [Barcelona’s Lionel] Messi it is always complicated."
Silva also responded to Guardiola's 'best player' comment saying, "I think people interpreted things a little different to what he meant. Of course Cristiano, what he has done in over the last 15 years in football is probably one of the best players ever in the history of football, so no comparison to him."
What's next?
Whether City will be drawn against Juventus in the quarter-finals will be confirmed when the Champions League draw takes place on Friday.
