On Tuesday night, Manchester City hosts Real Madrid at the Etihad Stadium in the semi-finals of the Champions League in a bid to make it to back to back finals, as they look to erase last season’s shortcomings in Porto.
Famously City and Real met at the semi-finals stage back in 2016, where Los Blancos edged out the Cityzens 1-0 on aggregate, whilst last season the tie resulted in a 4-2 aggregate win for City, as they won both legs of the Round of 16.
Kevin De Bruyne has been instrumental for City yet again this season, with pundits running out of words to describe the Belgian’s quality.
The former Chelsea and Wolfsburg man managed two shots on target against Atletico Madrid in the home leg in the quarter-finals, which was some achievement when considering how defensive Diego Simeone’s side played. De Bruyne notably scored the only goal of the match, which turned out to be the only goal across the two legs.
De Bruyne has notably turned up in big games for the Sky Blues of late, having bagged a brace against Manchester United, as well as the opener in his side’s 2-2 home draw with Liverpool in the Premier League.
Both of the last two meetings between City and Real saw the Over 2.5 Goals Market land, with the Cityzens running out as 4-2 aggregate winners. Meanwhile, both of Los Blanco’s quarter-final matches against Chelsea saw the same market come off, following a 3-1 win at Stamford Bridge, before losing the second leg 3-2 at home.
Real have only managed five or more corners once in their last four outings across all competitions, having done so against Getafe on 9th April in La Liga, where they registered 10.
As for both, Rodri and Casemiro, they are typically combative players who are well known for their hard-tackling and professional fouls to break up play in a bid to protect their defences. Although the latter is a slight doubt for this match, Carlo Ancelotti will be keen to have the Brazilian in his side, as he is vital for Real’s defensive structure.
As mentioned above, De Bruyne managed two shots on target in City’s home leg victory over Atletico in the quarter-finals.
Meanwhile, Karim Benzema is currently the early bookmakers’ favourite for the Ballon d’Or, having scored 37 goals in 38 matches, whilst creating 12 assists. The former Lyon man has taken 118 shots in 38 appearances, with a shot accuracy of 62%. Benzema notably scored a hat-trick against Chelsea in the first leg of the quarter-finals.
The Aforementioned Benzema is in red hot form having managed 49 goal contributions in 38 games and scored a brace of headers at Stamford Bridge in Los Blancos’ 3-1 victory over Chelsea as part of his hat-trick.
Of Benzema’s four goals against Chelsea, three of them were headers across the two legs, this took the 34-year-old’s Champions League goal tally up to 12 in nine games. The Frenchman currently averages a goal every 69 minutes in Europe and trails Robert Lewandowski by just one goal.
On Saturday (23/11/24) Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur go head-to-head at the Etihad Stadium in what is expected to be an intense Premier League showdown. This is your chanc...
