Can City win the Champions League for the first time?
REAL Madrid meet Manchester City in their Champions League semi-final at the Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid, Spain tonight.
The game promises to be a cracker like the first leg which ended 4-3 last week.
Last week’s action was filled with attacking brilliance as Madrid’s man of the moment Karim Benzema scored a brace while City produced a team effort to net four goals through four different players. The defending from both teams was terrible and it is something that they will be looking to strengthen tonight.
With the away goals rule being scrapped from Uefa competitions, Madrid require one goal to claw themselves back into the tie on aggregate.
Carlo Ancelotti’s side will back themselves and may also have a psychological advantage. Los Blancos secured their 35th La Liga title last weekend following their 4-0 thrashing of Espanyol. In doing so, Ancelotti became the first coach to win titles across Europe’s top five leagues (Spain, England, Italy, Germany and France).
With the La Liga title wrapped up, Madrid can essentially throw their full energy into trying to win the Champions League, a tournament they have not won since the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo in 2018.
Manchester City will need to carefully balance the Champions League fixture with their Premier League title race.
The Cityzens are involved in a title battle with Liverpool. They lead Jurgen Klopp’s side by one point with four league fixtures remaining this season.
City can ill afford to let any of their players get injured at this stage of the season. Liverpool have not lost a competitive fixture since the start of 2022 and so dropping one point in the league could potentially cost them the title.
Since their Arab takeover in 2008, the Champions League has been the one major title that has eluded City.
It is also now the only remaining piece of silverware that Pep Guardiola has not yet won for the club since his arrival in 2016.
Despite being one of the most decorated managers of the modern generation, Guardiola has also not won Europe’s premier club competition since he led Barcelona to glory in 2011.
The key man for Madrid will again be the 34-year-old Benzema.
The Frenchman is having the season of his life, having netted 42 goals in all competitions to date. Benzema has been on the books of Los Blancos since 2009’ it is rare that a player remains on the books of a side like Madrid for that long.
There is no doubt that Benzema will be a very strong candidate to win the next Ballon d’Or award, especially if France successfully defends their World Cup title in Qatar later this year.
While Madrid have a psychological advantage, City may just have the advantage in terms of quality.
The City team have been functioning better as a unit this season with various players in their attack being capable of winning games.
Apart from Vinicius Junior and Benzema, none of the other Madrid attacking players really boast a big fear-factor at the moment. The side has been critiqued for being a bit too over-reliant on the duo.
Then again, this is cup football. If one thing is certain about Champions League football, it is that anything can happen.