UEFA Champions League: All on the line as Real Madrid set to face Manchester City at the Etihad

A 1-1 draw from the first leg makes the tie very balanced, with City perhaps slight favourites, but Real Madrid’s skill and pace on the break means they will walk onto the pitch at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday night thinking that He has everything. another chance to reach the finals

Carlo Ancelotti’s team may have won the European Supercup and the World Club Cup this season and then followed those tournaments up with the Copa del Rey after beating Osasuna in the final. However, they were soundly beaten in the Spanish Supercup by FC Barcelona and Sunday saw how Barca relegated La Liga with four games to play, reports Xinhua. (Liverpool keep hopes of top-four finish in Premier League alive, push Leicester City towards relegation, see)

Whatever Wednesday’s result, Ancelotti will probably be safe and has done well to build a team that has a clear style of play, capable of dominating smaller teams and hitting others on the break with Vinicius Jr’s pace . Fede Valverde and Rodrigo.

However, Madrid president Florentino Perez is notoriously cynical and at a club where second place is seen as a failure, a bad defeat on Wednesday will ask some questions about Ancelotti’s future.

“I’m not thinking too much about tomorrow, don’t worry guys.”

Pep Guardiola will try to beat Real Madrid tomorrow pic.twitter.com/FM9H7Wtqnt— Football Daily (@footballdaily) May 16, 2023

Last season was a miracle fighting campaign for Real Madrid as they came back from the dead in the last-16 to beat Paris Saint-Germain with three late goals when 2-0 down on aggregate and being outplayed.

They also struggled in the quarter-finals against Chelsea before being relegated, while last season’s semi-final saw them on the ropes in the last minute against Manchester City, before two goals from Rodrygo in injury time secured an away victory. who probably still can’t believe what happened.

All three of those battles took place at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, with 80,000 fans behind them, a huge advantage for Madrid, but this time they are away from home and it is Manchester City who will have a wall of sound.

Pep Guardiola’s side have the disadvantage of not playing their Premier League game away to Everton until Sunday and although they have rested Kevin De Bruyne, Jack Grealish, Bernardo Silva and John Stones, Guardiola has made no secret of his displeasure at a short 24-hour recovery not made longer than Madrid due to the Eurovision Song Contest.

In contrast Ancelotti was able to completely turn his team around in Saturday’s 1-0 home win against Getafe and Madrid should come into the game a bit fresher than their rivals, who will have to dig deeper in their efforts to win the Premier League. It is lying

Eduardo Camavinga should be able to play at left-back after suffering a slight twist in his left knee on Saturday, while Ancelotti has confirmed Antonio Rudiger has resumed after marking Erling Haaland from last week’s draw.

Whether Rudiger and right-back Dani Carvajal will be given as much leeway by the referee on Wednesday night as they were at the Bernabeu last week will be interesting to see, with Carvajal particularly lucky that Grealish and many on any They escaped after bad challenges. Yellow cards (especially in the first half) will dictate how Madrid defend.

With the tie hanging in the balance, many questions remain to be answered: can Madrid do it again on the break and can they keep Haaland as calm as they did last week? If the answer is yes to both questions, they will progress: if not, expect Manchester City to reach the final for the second time in their history.