A titanic battle is in store for us on the first day of the revamped UEFA Champions League knockouts as the competition’s last two winners face off.
Manchester City have been drawn against Real Madrid in the UCL knockouts for the fourth consecutive season, but both teams are far from their best this time around.
- Real Madrid still searching for their first win at the Etihad
This will be Real Madrid’s seventh visit to Manchester City’s home, but they are still yet to register an outright win at the venue.
In fact, the Etihad Stadium is the only ground that the Spanish giants have visited over five times without success.
Los Blancos have lost three and drawn as many games at the Etihad, but they did emerge victorious on penalties in their most recent meeting.
That result broke the trend of the first-leg hosts losing all ties in this head-to-head.
- Manchester City’s home form on the mend
While the worst patch of Manchester City’s downturned form is likely behind them, they certainly aren’t back to their best yet.
They were defeated in two of their last five games, conceding over three goals on both occasions. On the whole, they have lost precisely half of their last 22 matches.
However, Pep Guardiola’s side seem to quietly be getting back on track on their own turf at least.
They have won all four of their home matches in 2025, including a couple of big games such as Chelsea’s Premier League visit and their UCL league phase finale against Club Brugge.
They will be desperate to extend this streak at the start of a formidable looking fixture list.
- New signings and injury issues for Manchester City
Manchester City went big in the January window, recording the second-highest mid-season transfer spend in football history.
They added four players to their first-team squad, but only three could make the cut in their revised UCL squad. So, teenage centre-back Vitor Reis will not feature in Europe this season.
€60 million midfield signing Nico González was widely seen as Manchester City’s interim Rodri replacement, but he had to go off injured less than half an hour into his debut ironically enough.
Uzbek defender Abdukodir Khusanov scored his first goal for the club in that match, though he is unlikely to feature ahead of more senior figures tonight.
Versatile attacker Omar Marmoush is the likeliest of the trio to make his Champions League debut in this big game, most probably off the bench.
Jérémy Doku, Nathan Aké, Ederson and Oscar Bobb are the other doubts in City’s squad.
- Real Madrid’s defensive injury crisis compounded
Real Madrid’s injury crisis is even worse as key defenders Dani Carvajal and Éder Militão are out for the season, while David Alaba is yet to start a game and recently suffered another setback.
Antonio Rüdiger picked up a minor hamstring injury earlier this month, and matters were made worse this week when stand-in right back Lucas Vázquez suffered a similar issue.
So, Carlo Ancelotti will have to field Federico Valverde to the right of a makeshift centre-back pairing of Aurélien Tchouaméni and Raúl Asencio.
- Prediction
Given Real Madrid’s depleted state, City should aim to record a multi-goal win.
- Today’s Fixtures
