Pep Guardiola believes Manchester City have a "1%" chance of keeping their Champions League hopes alive by beating Real Madrid in Wednesday's playoff round second-leg clash in Spain.

Madrid, who won the competition for a record 16th time by defeating Borussia Dortmund in last season's final at Wembley, claimed a 3-2 first-leg win at the Etihad last week after scoring twice in the final four minutes to overturn a 2-1 deficit following two earlier Erling Haaland goals for City.

City have won just once at the Bernabéu -- a 2-1 round-of-16 victory in February 2020 -- and must defeat Carlo Ancelotti's team in Madrid to avoid an early exit in this year's competition.

Former Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach Guardiola admits that his City team have a mountain to climb in the Bernabéu, but he says they still have a small chance of reaching the next round.

"The margin to win in Bernabéu in that position [3-2 down], everybody knows that if you ask before the game, the percentage to go through, I don't know, we arrive at 1%, or I don't know what," Guardiola said.

"It will be minimal, but as much as you have a chance, we will try, that's for sure, you know? "The chance is minor because the result was not good -- five minutes ago, with 2-1, it would be different.

"But with 2-3, the chance is less, but as much as you have a chance, we are going to take it, and we'll see what happens."

City have endured their worst season since Guardiola took charge in 2016 during this campaign, losing 12 games in all competitions and surrendering their title hopes by mid-season. And the City coach admits that, while this season has been hugely disappointing, Saturday's 4-0 home win against Newcastle could provide a springboard for a recovery going into final weeks of the campaign.

"Listen, there are many, many games that we didn't play the level we play, and at the end, we lost it," Guardiola said.

"And that was not just the three points, it's how it is affecting our minds for the next game. "It happened a lot of times. This season, the reality is that we have been miles, miles away.

Two spectators suffered serious injuries after a person fell from a middle tier stand into the lower tier during Sunday's Bundesliga match between Eintracht Frankfurt and Holstein Kiel, hosts Frankfurt said in a statement.

The injured people were treated by paramedics at the stadium before being taken to hospital. Two other spectators sustained minor injuries in the incident.

"We would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a speedy recovery," the club said in a social media post on Sunday.

Third-placed Frankfurt beat bottom side Holstein Kiel 3-1.

James Maddison aimed a dig at Roy Keane after scoring the winning goal in Tottenham Hotspur's 1-0 victory over Manchester United on Sunday.

Maddison's close-range finish on 13 minutes settled a low-quality contest in north London, which came at the end of a week in which former United midfielder Keane said: "Maddison isn't bad when he's not at the darts...but if you think he's going to come back and get Spurs top six, you're in cuckoo land."

Speaking to the Stick to Football podcast, Keane added: "He's a talented player, but if you're a player in the Spurs dressing room and he's back in the squad, you wouldn't be looking and going, 'James is back today -- we're going to be fine!'"

The 28-year-old marked his close-range finish by throwing an imaginary dart and then putting his finger to his lips in a silencing motion and afterwards, he told Sky Sports: "There was a little bit of outside noise this week.

"People will have their opinions. I wanted to do my talking on the pitch today so I hope there's a certain few that enjoyed me being the match-winner today.

"Nobody is more critical of myself than me. To be fair to the gaffer, he always talks about blocking out the outside noise, but sometimes it is difficult, it is constantly in your face.

"You can use it [as motivation], but I think the gaffer prefers it when we're just in our little bubble and just listening to him.

"But sometimes it is difficult because it is constantly in your face these days with social media, WhatsApp and people sending stuff. You do see it and it is there. Sometimes [it is fed through to my phone], especially when it is a big high-profile name. But listen, it is about responding in the right way and I did that today."

Spurs moved up to 12th place in the table with United languishing in 15th place and Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou said of Maddison: "Everybody has mentioned his celebration, but I didn't see it so I can't comment on it, but it doesn't surprise me that Madders didn't accept what was being said about him and threw a shot back over the bow.

"It's just great to have him back. He is a quality player. If you just look at his goals return from midfield this year it's still right up there. He got frustrated when he got injured and to be honest we didn't think he would be back for a couple of weeks but he has worked awfully hard in training and done everything right to make sure he was available.

"I think that is the key thing for us and we have seen it with all our players, particularly in recent times. The injured lads are all desperate to contribute. They have seen what the other guys have gone through and are just pushing hard."

Postecoglou acknowledged the difficult situation Ruben Amorim is in at United, who were missing 12 players through injury and illness, but the Australian coach quickly added he wouldn't be sending any sympathy cards.

"If I check my office, I don't have any sympathy cards from other managers, so that hasn't happened," Postecoglou said. "There's definitely a few [injuries]. I could see Ruben there, players out of position, kids on the bench.

"Well, welcome to my world. But that's for one game. Now do that for two months. Do that for two months. Any club. Do that for two months. I thought Man United were good today, considering all that, and we had our days when we were good, we beat Liverpool in this spell."

Argentina great Ángel Di María has said he continues to take medication to cope with the disappointment and pressure of losing three straight finals with his national team.

While the Benfica winger won the 2022 World Cup and the 2024 Copa América at the end of his Argentina career, he had previously lost two Copa América finals and the 2014 FIFA World Cup in a three-year span.

"Because of that I'm still taking the meds," Di María told Infobae as reported in ESPN."I was able to reduce it [dosage]. I'm much better, but that's something a little addictive, too ... These are things that stay with you, that mark you."

Di María was one of the heroes after scoring the only goal against Brazil in the Copa América final in 2021 and the first one for his team in the win over France at the 2022 World Cup final.

He said he feels sorry for many of his former Argentina teammates that didn't experience title glory.

"Who remembers the boys that reached that World Cup final and didn't win?" he said. "Very few, it seems unfair to me. Who is talking about those kids? Nobody. Very few can tell you how they played. I said it a lot of times when we became world champions, when we won the Copa América, I always said that those trophies were also [thanks] to the previous generation."

Despite still playing at a competitive level, Di María, 37, retired from international duty last summer and has no regrets.

The former Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain player scored 31 goals in 145 appearances for the Albiceleste.

"I was there for 16 years [with the national team] and it is as if I had been in a club," Di María said. "It's difficult, but I think I made the right decision. It's obvious that it tempts me because it's the national team. I achieved everything I wanted to achieve. I left the way I wanted to leave ... "I hope one day I can be there again, in a different role."

Liverpool could move 10 points clear of Arsenal at the top of the Premier League if they beat Aston Villa in midweek, but if they lose then Arne Slot's team could travel to Manchester City on Sunday with their lead cut to four and the first signs of a title wobble developing.

Bigger leads than seven points have been lost in Premier League title races -- Manchester United threw away an eight-point lead with six games to go in 2011-12 -- so Liverpool will be entering hazardous territory if they start to let their foot off the gas.

It's difficult to gauge where Liverpool are at. With a gap at the top, they are seemingly on course for a first title since 2019-20, but recent results and performances have hinted that trouble could lie ahead and the prospect of a much closer title run-in than many had anticipated.

In isolation, their FA Cup fourth-round defeat at EFL Championship strugglers Plymouth Argyle could be dismissed as an outlier result suffered on a day when virtually all of Slot's regulars either watched from the bench or their sofas, having been given a day off. But losing to a team anchored to the foot of the Championship table at the time didn't reflect well on Slot's fringe players and their ability to step in if needed during the run-in now has a significant question mark hanging over it.

The Plymouth defeat was followed by a chaotic and dramatic Merseyside derby against Everton at Goodison Park, which ended in a 2-2 draw after James Tarkowski's 98th-minute equaliser for the home side. Then came the 2-1 home win against Wolves on Sunday which steadied the ship, put Liverpool back on a winning trajectory and restored their seven-point lead after Arsenal had briefly reduced it to four by winning at Leicester City 24 hours earlier.

Yet the Wolves win was edgy and unconvincing. It ended, according to Opta, with Liverpool failing to register a single shot in the second half of a Premier League game at Anfield for the first time since 2003-04.

There are two ways to assess the match: It was either a classic case of a title-winning team grinding out a victory while performing poorly, or it was a sign of things beginning to go awry.

Virgil van Dijk is one of only three outfield players -- alongside Fulham's Antonee Robinson and Brentford's Nathan Collins -- to have played every single minute of every Premier League game this season. Star forward Mohamed Salah has missed only 35 minutes of Premier League football this term, while midfielder Ryan Gravenberch has been absent for only 110 this season. Van Dijk (630), Salah (602) and Gravenberch (585) have also been Liverpool's most active players in their UEFA Champions League campaign this season.

Those numbers -- and similar workloads registered by Alexis Mac Allister, Ibrahima Konaté and Luis Díaz -- are why Slot rested so many players at Plymouth. The FA Cup exit will ease Liverpool's fixture list and give the squad some much-needed breathing space between now and the end of the season, but recent performances have suggested fatigue is already having an impact.

This is why the upcoming period is so crucial for Liverpool. Slot's side travel to face Aston Villa on Wednesday, City on Sunday, then face Newcastle at Anfield on Feb. 26. These are three huge Premier League games that could make or break their title challenge.

If Liverpool win all three, they can start to plan for a Premier League trophy parade, but any defeat would give Arsenal and third-placed Nottingham Forest, who meet at the City Ground on Feb. 26, the belief that the race is still on.

And why shouldn't they still hold out hope of a late surge to the title? Arsenal were 12 points behind reigning champions Manchester United on March 1, 1998, but Arsene Wenger's team still ended the season as Premier League champions. Two years earlier, Kevin Keegan's Newcastle moved nine points clear of Sir Alex Ferguson's side -- having played one game fewer -- with a 2-1 win at Middlesbrough on Feb. 10, but United reeled Newcastle in and overtook them to win the title in the final week of the campaign.

Man United and Arsenal, in 1996 and 1998, sparked their title surge with a win away to Newcastle and United, respectively, during the run-in, but while Forest have already played Liverpool twice -- winning at Anfield and drawing at home -- Arsenal are due to travel to Anfield on May 10 on Matchday 36/38 in what could be a title decider if Liverpool lose momentum in the weeks ahead.

Although Liverpool led from the front to win the title under Jurgen Klopp in 2019-20 -- the club's first title since 1990 -- they have a poor record when it comes to holding their nerve in Premier League title races. Indeed, they have led the table on New Year's Day on seven occasions, but in five of the previous six, they have failed to finish on top.

Liverpool blew a nine-point lead in the 2018-19 season, so their seven-point advantage right now might just feel a little more vulnerable due to previous failures and the fixture list now looming.

This week will be a key moment in Liverpool's title challenge and the next few games could be the ones that make all difference.