Last season’s finalist Manchester City welcome record-winners Real Madrid at the Etihad Stadium for the UEFA Champions League semi-final first leg.
Both teams sit on top of their domestic leagues and come in this game on the back of some excellent showing. City smashed Watford 5-1 in their last match, whereas Madrid eased past Osasuna 3-1.
City have lost just one out of their last 13 games in all competitions (8W, 4D), while Madrid have won 10 and lost 2 in their previous 12 fixtures.
This is the sixth time City will face Madrid in UEFA Champions League. Manchester City failed to beat Real Madrid in the first four attempts (D2 L2) but won both legs in the round of 16 against them in 2019-20.
Man City manager Pep Guardiola has eliminated Real Madrid from the knockout stages of this competition twice. He is looking to be the first manager to eliminate Real Madrid thrice.
Madrid have won one of their last six away games against English side (D2 L3). The latest victory did come against Chelsea earlier this month. No team has beaten two English sides away from home in the same season in this competition.
Pep Guardiola (4W) and Carlo Ancelotti (2W) have faced each other on six previous occasions. All four of Pep’s wins came against Ancelotti’s Everton side, whereas the Italian defeated Pep in the UEFA Champions League semi-finals in 2013-14 when his Real Madrid side demolished Pep’s Bayern Munich 5-0 on aggregate.
Raheem Sterling has scored 24 goals for Manchester City. He needs one more to overtake Paul Scholes (24) and trail only Wayne Rooney (30) for most goals scored by an English Player for an English team in this competition’s history. Karim Benzema has scored 12 goals in nine appearances for Madrid this season in the UEFA Champions League, including a hat-trick against Chelsea earlier this month.
