Who: Manchester City vs Real Madrid
What: UEFA Champions League – Knockout phase, first leg
Where: Etihad Stadium, Manchester, UK
When: Tuesday February 11 at 8pm local time (20:00 GMT)
Follow Al Jazeera’s live text and photo commentary stream of the match.
LaLiga leaders Real Madrid travel to England to play struggling Manchester City on Tuesday in the first leg of the home-and-away knockout phase of the UEFA Champions League (UCL).
Real lifted both the LaLiga and Champions League titles last season and are strong favourites to prevail against the Premier League champions.
These two global football powerhouses enjoy a fierce rivalry at the very top of European football and it would be premature to dismiss City’s chances – despite a dire domestic season so far – when they still field several world-class players who will be extra motivated to pull off an upset against the 15-time UCL champions.
How bad is it for Man City at the moment?
Manchester City’s season may have reached a new low on Saturday when they had to come from behind to beat English third-tier side Leyton Orient 2-1 in the fourth round of the FA Cup.
An already wretched season for Pep Guardiola’s side looked like turning into a nightmare upset as Orient stubbornly protected a 16th-minute lead given to them by Jamie Donley’s long-range wonder strike that went in via the crossbar and the back of City keeper Stefan Ortega.
City huffed and puffed in response and Abdukodir Khusanov’s equaliser in the 56th minute, followed by Kevin De Bruyne scoring what turned out to be the game-winner in the 79th minute allowed the Cityzens to hold on and progress to the FA Cup quarterfinals.
In the Champions League, Man City and Real Madrid meet for the fourth consecutive season, but this time much earlier in the competition in large part due to Cityzens’ struggles.
Pep Guardiola’s men finished in the 22nd spot on the UCL league phase table after winning only three matches out of eight. City were comfortably beaten by Sporting Lisbon and Juventus, blew a 3-0 lead to draw 3-3 at home to Feyenoord and conceded four times in the final 35 minutes at Paris Saint-Germain.
What’s the recent form guide on Real Madrid?
Despite their position at the top of the LaLiga table, Madrid have endured a mixed start to their season, leading to speculation that this could be manager Carlo Ancelotti’s last season in charge.
Two weeks ago, Los Blancos were on the cusp of running away with the Spanish league title but an unexpected 1-0 loss to Espanyol (February 1) and a disappointing, come-from-behind 1-1 home draw against Atletico (February 8) leaves the defending LaLiga champions with a slender one-point lead atop the table.
In the Champions League group fixtures, Real Madrid hasn’t performed much better than Man City, winning only five of their eight matches.
Ancelotti’s side recovered to achieve a playoff position – but their reward for a sluggish campaign was facing the side they replaced as Champions League winners last season, Manchester City.
Are there any injury concerns heading into the playoff?
Key midfielder Rodri will miss the tie despite being retained in City’s Champions League squad in the hope he could return from an ACL tear before the end of the season.
But City’s three new signings – Omar Marmoush, Abdukodir Khusanov and Gonzalez – are free to face the Spanish champions, while City are further boosted by the return from injury of Ruben Dias, Nathan Ake and Jeremy Doku.
Real Madrid have their own injury troubles without defenders Dani Carvajal, Eder Militao, David Alaba and Antonio Rudiger.
Possible Lineups:
Manchester City:
Ederson (GK); Nunes, Akanji, Stones, Gvardiol, Silva, De Bruyne, Foden, Marmoush, Grealish, Haaland.
Real Madrid:
Courtois (GK); Vazquez, Tchouameni, Asencio, Garcia, Valverde, Modric, Rodrygo, Bellingham, Mbappe, Vini Jr.
Head-to-Head:
- Total matches: 14
- Man City won: 5
- Real Madrid won: 4
- Draws: 5
What happened the last time these sides met?
The teams last met in the 2024 UEFA Champions League quarterfinals with Real Madrid’s Antonio Rudiger scoring the decisive penalty to lift his side to an edge-of-your-seat 4-3 shootout away victory over holders Manchester City at Etihad Stadium.
In two of the three ties between the sides in the past three years, Madrid began as underdogs, were largely outplayed and yet still progressed at City’s expense.
European champions Madrid host the return leg of their playoff round clash against Manchester City at the Bernabeu on February 19.
