Bernardo Silva believes he can use his experience of playing alongside Cristiano Ronaldo to Manchester City's advantage in the derby versus Manchester United on Saturday.
Bernardo will face his international captain for the first time at Old Trafford, after both have been regulars for the Portugal national side since the City man's breakthrough.
The City dynamo has praised Ronaldo's start to life back at United, and offered his teammates some surprisingly straightforward advice on how to stop him from scoring — don't let him get the ball.
"I think he is doing well. He is helping United with late winners this season," Bernardo told Sky Sports.
"He is a player that people know, he can decide the game. We're going to try and stop him, and make sure that he doesn't score on Saturday.
"But we're not playing against Cristiano, we're playing against Manchester United. We're going to be focussed on our job."
Speaking to City's in-house media team, Bernardo expanded on what City can do to stop the threat of Ronaldo, and he insisted the hard work will be done by the Blues' forwards just as much as the defenders tasked with stopping the in-form United striker.
He explained: “I think mostly controlling the game with the ball, because we know how dangerous they are with players like [Edinson] Cavani and Ronaldo and when they have chances, they're lethal. They don't need much space to score.
“The only way to avoid them creating chances is with the ball, is having the ball as much as we can and trying to put them in their final third to try to prevent the counter-attacks as much as possible.
“So yeah, we're going to try and be as focused as we can to do that and win the game.”
Bernardo said it won't be strange facing an international teammate as there are many Portugal players in the Premier League, but attempted to play down Ronaldo's importance in the derby.
"I never played against him, I'm used to having him on my side," he said in his Sky interview.
"I've played against many of my team-mates - when I play Wolves, I play against half of the national team!
"When I play against Liverpool, I play against [Diogo] Jota, when I play against United, I play against Bruno [Fernandes] as well. There are many team-mates here in the Premier League.
"Of course Cristiano is a big name, as everyone knows. It is one more game, an important one - very important for us, but just one more game.
"He's the captain, our captain, an important player for us on and off the field. The best goalscorer for Portugal and all countries. He's a player that everyone knows. I shouldn't need to describe him and how important he is for our national team."
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