Just a day after treating an enthralled Etihad to one of the most compelling European ties ever seen on English soil by securing an incident-packed 4-3 win over the Spanish giants, Pep Guardiola’s side are now preparing for another key domestic test.
We travel to Elland Road on Saturday for a challenging teatime assignment, looking to maintain top spot in the Premier League.
It also promises to be a perfect dress rehearsal ahead of next Wednesday’s defining Champions League semi-final second leg at the Bernabeu.
And Dias says for City, with the final seismic month of the season almost upon us, it’s literally a case of taking it one game at a time as we vie for silverware on two fronts.
“It’s one final won and we need to win the second one next week in Madrid. The spirit is positive,” Dias declared as he looked ahead to another pivotal week for City.
“We could have scored more, we could have conceded fewer goals, but we don’t have time to reflect on that.
“This weekend we have another final against Leeds (in the Premier League) and after that, we will focus on Real Madrid again.
“We will take home a win. That is the major thing to think about Tuesday.
“We will now focus on the Premier League and then it will be time to focus on the second game.
“We go game by game. We are aware of what team are we facing, the impact they have in the Champions League and the atmosphere at the Santiago Bernabeu.
“But we know our goal and what we need to achieve it. We are going to play with our personality and try to win.
“The Bernabeu is a mad place, but Man City is also a mad team. We will be ready for it.”
The only frustration for Dias and his team-mates after an astonishing first leg was that we didn’t round off a magnificent attacking display with even more goals.
As well as hitting the post through Riyad Mahrez and seeing a Phil Foden effort blocked on the line, Guardiola’s side carved out several more gilt-edged opportunities.
However, Dias insisted the tie was never going to be settled after the first 90 minutes and pledged that City would be more than ready for what will confront us at the Bernabeu in seven days’ time.
“You can never be happy with too many goals conceded. But we need to be cold when we are looking at the result,” the Portuguese international asserted.
“It is the semi-final of the Champions League and obviously we could have got a bigger difference instead of 1-0. Obviously the better the result, the better for us.
“But a semi-final and with the second leg in Madrid, the game was never going to be finished [after the first leg].
“No matter what happened, it would never be finished here in this first leg.”
