Pep Guardiola accepts that failure to win the Champions League this season could lead to him being sacked as Manchester City manager, which means a loss to Real Madrid could be the end.
City are not going to defend their Premier League title this season, sitting 22 points behind rivals Liverpool, and the main aim for the rest of the season has to be the Champions League.
The team are yet to win a European competition in modern times and the manager is yet to win one since being Barcelona manager. Guardiola accepts that the pressure is on and he could lose his job if his side fail to beat Real in the last 16.
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"I want to win the Champions League, I dream and will enjoy the games against Real Madrid, to see what I can do," the former Bayern Munich boss told Football Daily.
"And this process, the two weeks before, will be the happiest moments of my profession, to imagine what we can do to beat them.
"If we don't beat them, then the chairman will come, or the sporting director, and say 'It's not good enough, we want the Champions League, I'm going to sack you.'
"Then 'OK, thank you, it was a pleasure.'"
The 49-year-old has won seven trophies with City since joining the club in 2016, including last season's domestic treble, but knows that even victory in both the FA and Carabao Cups might not be enough for this campaign to be seen as successful.
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After winning last season's league title by a point the Etihad club would have been hoping to be only the third team, and second club, to win three Premier League tiles in a row.
However they have been way off the pace this season and have lost as many games as the previous two seasons combined, with 13 games to go.
Under the former Roma midfielder's stewardship the club have only reached the quarter final of Europe's elite club competition and didn't even make it that far in his first season.
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They have only been to the semi-final once, losing to Real, under Manuel Pellegrini and Guardiola's personal record in the competition hasn't been as good as would have been expected in recent years.
Barca reached the semi final in his final season in charge at the Camp Nou and his time at Bayern Munich, which directly followed the Germans winning the competition, saw him fail to get past the final four.
Can Pep finally end his poor run in the Champions League?
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