Man City vs Real Madrid LIVE commentary: Champions League holders ramp up bid for historic treble repeat – kick-off time, team news and talkSPORT coverage

ScoreLive April 17, 2024 0

Manchester City start the most pivotal week of their pursuit of an unprecedented double treble by hosting Real Madrid this evening.

The Champions League holders played out a thrilling 3-3 draw at the Bernabeu in the pick of the quarter-final first legs last week.

Bellingham was kept unusually quiet during the first legCredit: Rex

Pep Guardiola‘s men then moved two points clear at the top of the Premier League with a 5-1 win over Luton on Saturday, a day before both title rivals Liverpool and Arsenal suffered shock defeats.

City now have the chance to dump 14-time holders Madrid out of the Champions League for a second successive season.

The Etihad outfit renew hostilities with Carlo Ancelotti‘s side just days before their FA Cup semi-final at Wembley, with City now favourites to defend their historic treble triumph.

Man City vs Real Madrid: On the brink

Normally clubs just don’t do this to Los Blancos, the European giants and record winners of the Champions League.

Most read in Champions League

Guardiola has had Ancelotti's number in recent encounters — Guardiola has had Ancelotti’s number in recent encounters

This will be the eighth time that Pep Guardiola and Carlo Ancelotti have faced each other in the UEFA Champions League, and the sixth while in charge of their current clubs Manchester City and Real Madrid. The only pairs of managers who have faced each other on more than eight occasions in the competition are Alex Ferguson & Ottmar Hitzfeld and Carlo Ancelotti & Jürgen Klopp (nine times each).
The last five meetings between Manchester City and Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League have produced 23 goals, at an average of 4.6 per game. In two of the five games, the opening goal has been scored inside the opening two minutes of play (1:34 by Kevin De Bruyne in April 2022 and 1:49 by Bernardo Silva in this season’s first leg).
Manchester City have won each of their last three home games against Real Madrid, all of which have been under Pep Guardiola in the UEFA Champions League (2-1 in 2020, 4-3 in 2022 and 4-0 in 2023). The only previous manager to win four consecutive home games against Real Madrid in the competition is Ottmar Hitzfeld, who did so in charge of FC Bayern München between 2000 and 2002 (4).

Man City vs Real Madrid: Team news

The home side are sweating on the fitness of John Stones but otherwise have a clean bill of health to contend with.

Kyle Walker, Phil Foden, and Nathan Ake were all unused substitutes against Luton and the former two are in line to come in to start.

Madrid are without several key stars, with goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and David Alaba headlining the absentee list.

Rodrygo missed the 1-0 win over Mallorca on Saturday due to a knock and is a doubt and Aurelien Tchouameni is suspended.

City battled to a thrilling 3-3 draw with Real Madrid in the first legCredit: Getty

Real Madrid have only progressed from two of their previous 10 UEFA Champions League knockout stage ties after failing to win the first leg at home. Both of the times they’ve managed to progress in that scenario in the second leg were against Manchester United (1999-2000 quarter-finals and 2012-13 round of 16).
This will be Manchester City’s 200th match in European competition, while their 113 wins to date is precisely the same number Real Madrid had in their first 200 such games. Should the Citizens win this, they will have the fourth-most wins through their first 200 European matches, after Ajax (118), Juventus (115) and Liverpool (114).
Real Madrid have trailed on the scoreboard for the least amount of time of any team in the UEFA Champions League this season (43:48). Indeed, despite falling behind on two separate occasions in the first leg against Manchester City, they were only behind for a total of 18 minutes in the match.

Man City vs Real Madrid: What has been said?

Guardiola has warned that City captain Walker could see his season ended early if he’s rushed back this week.

The defender has missed the last five games for club and country with a hamstring injury sustained in England’s 1-0 defeat to Brazil.

Walker had to exit his battle with Vinicius Junior at Wembley early and was unable to recover in time to feature in Spain.

His absence saw City leak goals down the right side, with Walker himself desperate to be passed fit for the return leg.

“He feels much better but he was injured, so now we will see in the next days,” said Guardiola after the Luton match.

“But he is good, he feels good.

“Maybe he can help with minutes because it is a ‘final’ but I don’t want to lose him for a long time if he gets injured. He will train a bit more now and we will decide.

“I know how important Kyle is against the players from Real Madrid. But he was not in Madrid and Manu [Akanji], Josko [Gvardiol], John [Stones], Ruben [Dias] played incredibly well. We will see.”

Stones and Walker both suffered injuries during the March international breakCredit: Getty

Phil Foden has scored in each of his last five starts in the UEFA Champions League (five goals); the joint-longest run by a Manchester City player in the competition, along with Sergio Agüero (Feb 2018-March 2019).
Bernardo Silva has netted four goals in seven games against Real Madrid – against sides he’s faced 5+ times as a Manchester City player, only versus Watford (115) does he have a better minutes per goal ratio than he does against los Blancos (144).
Real Madrid’s Toni Kroos has completed 95% of his passes under high intensity pressure in the UEFA Champions League this season (259/273); the most of any midfielder in the competition. Indeed, Kroos only failed to complete one of his 23 passes made under high intensity pressure in the first leg against Manchester City (96% – 22/23).