Pep Guardiola has admitted Manchester City must overcome their defensive frailties to beat Real Madrid on Friday.

Defensive errors have ruined City's chances in Champions League campaigns in recent season, having copped goals at home against Tottenham and Liverpool.

Real arrive at the Etihad behind 2-1 on aggregate, and Guardiola knows his defence must hold up against the La Liga title winners.

"Yeah definitely," said Guardiola. "More than just conceding the goals, the way we concede the goals.

"If they [opponents] are brilliant and make a good action, we have to accept it. But most of them it was goals we could have avoided.

"So we have to avoid it, making mistakes like that, because this competition punishes you a lot.

"We know it. We've spoken about that, not now, not this week, but in the last years many times in important games like this.

"If we want to make a step forward as a team, to be close to win this competition, we have to be better in this area.

"Quite often managers plan for games, but the game speaks for itself, the way it develops dictates it.

"We want to impose our style on the game and we want to take the game into areas where we can hurt them, where our quality can stand out."