YAYA TOURE has decided against using his hot Spanish connections for the lowdown on Real Madrid.
By MARTIN BLACKBURN
The Manchester City ace has all the information he needs on the Spanish champions — thanks to his club’s thorough preparations.
The English title holders will also call on past experience — and are not about to make the same Champions League mistakes as last year when they failed at the group stage.
Midfield enforcer Toure, 29, was a European winner with Barcelona in 2009 and is desperate to follow suit with City.
And tomorrow he insists they are bang in the mood to pour more misery on Jose Mourinho and his Real side who have one win in four after Saturday’s loss at Seville heightened their early season gloom.
Star forward Cristiano Ronaldo is also thought to be unsettled, but Toure said: “I maintain contact with some ex-companions at Barca but I do not need their advice over Real.
“The City staff have prepared for this match in great detail and that’s enough information for us.
“Our last campaign was a disaster and we want to change all that.
“To win in the Bernabeu is a unique experience, enough to put you on the front pages. We shall put in our maximum to achieve that.
“So we shall be concentrating hard from the very first second.
“For me, the key to the result means winning the midfield battles with Xabi Alonso, Mesut Ozil and Sami Khedira. This is the key for the match.”
Mourinho has taunted City by telling them they will never have a history like Real.
But City chief Roberto Mancini is unfazed and vowed: “Our mentality is not to go there to Madrid, or anywhere, for a draw, or to lose.
“We want to win always. We know it will be a tough game. We play against one of the best teams in the world, but we want to do our job well and win.
“Am I excited? I will be if we win. At this moment, no, we do not have a history like Madrid but I think we have good players and we have have won some trophies.
“We are working towards this. We want to improve but we can’t say this now.
“We have a good team but we need to work and improve.”
This is only City’s second appearance in Europe’s biggest competition — but Mancini insists that his team are no rookies at this level.
He added: “We have 23 or 24 players — players with experience, who just played Champions League, they know this atmosphere.
“For all our players, this is a good experience and we are starting against a top team.
“We should be ready for it to be very difficult, because they have fantastic players, fantastic history.
“For these reasons, if we want to do well there, we should play very very well.”
City have been handed another daunting group with German champs Borussia Dortmund and Ajax, champions of Holland, making up the numbers.
It was the same story last year when Mancini’s men bowed out before the knock-out stages despite getting 10 points.
The Etihad chief is convinced they will qualify if they can hit the same points target this term.
He added: “After the group stage, if we did the same points as last year, I think we will go through this time.
“OK, we made some mistakes, and in the end we went though into the Europa League. But if we get 10 points now we can get through.”
