Tonight, two out of four strongest Champions League teams will fight, trying to take a solid step towards the final. At 21:45 in Manchester, the first semifinal match between the local "Manchester City" and Madrid "Real" teams will take place. Eurofootball.com provides you with a preview of these matches.
"Manchester City" - "Real"
Path to the semifinal:
"Manchester City", along with "Juventus", "Sevilla", and "Gladbach", entered Group D and finished first with 12 points. In the round of 16, they faced Kyiv "Dynamo" - the first match ended in a 3-1 victory away, while the home game ended in a 0-0 draw. In the quarterfinals, they faced "Paris Saint-Germain", with the first match ending in a 2-2 draw, and in the second leg at home, the "Cityzens" defeated their opponents 1-0.
"Real" entered Group A and finished first with 16 points, surpassing "Paris Saint-Germain", "Shakhtar", and "Malmo" teams. In the round of 16, they faced Roma, and Madrid won both matches by the same score of 2-0. In the quarterfinals, the "royal" team lost the first leg to "Wolfsburg" 0-2 in Germany, but Cristiano Ronaldo scored three goals in the second leg to take "Real" to the Champions League semifinals.
Team forms:
In domestic competitions, "Real" is in better form, having won nine consecutive matches in Spain. Last weekend, they defeated "Rayo Vallecano" 3-2 away, even without Ronaldo playing, while the opponents led with a two-goal advantage at one point.
Last weekend, "Manchester City" crushed "Stoke City" 4-0 and hasn't suffered a loss in the Premier League for five consecutive games. However, in the middle of the week, they failed to defeat one of the league's bottom teams, "Newcastle United", in an away match, ending in a 1-1 draw.
Team injuries and returns:
"Manchester City" will be without midfielder Yaya Toure, who has not yet recovered from a muscle injury. Team captain Vincent Kompany, who missed the weekend game, claims to be fully recovered from his injury and ready to play in Tuesday's match.
In the visitors' camp, there are concerns regarding the two most productive players of the team - Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema. Ronaldo suffered an injury a week ago and had to miss the game against "Rayo Vallecano". Meanwhile, Benzema got injured in the last match when he had to leave the pitch in the first half. However, according to the "Real" representatives, both players are ready for the game and will be in the starting lineup tonight.
What the coaches said before the match:
"In the past two years, when we played in the Champions League against "Barcelona", in three out of four matches, we ended the game with one player less. This is the most important lesson learned from those matches. It will be very important to play with hot hearts but cool heads. The game with one player less and unnecessary penalties decide the end of the match," said "City" manager Manuel Pellegrini.
"Away against Wolfsburg was tough for us. Their goal affected us a bit, and we don't want it to happen again. We have to be strong defensively because we know we will be under pressure. But I think we can unleash our attacking weapons. "City" is a good team, and if you give them freedom, they can punish you. Their players find themselves in open spaces and cause problems. We need to stop that," said visiting coach Zinedine Zidane.
Predicted lineups:
"Manchester City" (4-2-3-1): Hart; Sagna, Kompany, Mangala, Clichy; Fernando, Fernandinho; Navas, De Bruyne, Silva; Agüero
"Real" (4-3-3): Navas; Carvajal, Pepe, Ramos, Marcelo; Modric, Casemiro, Kroos; Bale, Benzema, Ronaldo
Key facts before the match:
- "Real" has not lost to English clubs in the last eight matches (6 wins, 2 draws). The last time an English team eliminated the Madrid club from the Champions League was in the 2008-2009 season when "Liverpool" did it.
- "Manchester City" has only kept a clean sheet once in all 10 matches against Spanish teams, which was in 2011 against "Villarreal".
- The last nine shots on target by "Manchester City" in the Champions League have resulted in goals.
- "City" has scored the most goals in the last fifteen minutes of the season in the Champions League (7).
- Pellegrini's students are the only ones of the remaining four teams in the tournament to control the ball for less than half of the match time on average (48.6%).
- Madrid's "Real" has reached the Champions League semifinals for seven consecutive years - the best result at the moment. It will also be their 27th appearance among the top four teams in the prestigious European tournament. No other team can boast such an achievement.
- In the knockout stages of the Champions League, "Real" has won only one of the last four matches played.
- Cristiano Ronaldo directly contributed to 77% of all "Real" goals this season in the competition (20 out of 26). He is also just one goal away from equaling his own record in these competitions (he scored 17 goals in the 2013-2014 season).
- Ronaldo has scored twice as many goals (16, with the second-highest player at 8) and attempted twice as many shots (82, with the second player at 41) in the Champions League this season.
- Sergio Aguero has not scored in three consecutive Champions League matches - his longest streak of goalless matches since the 2011-2012 season when he did not score in five matches in a row.
Tautvydas Sakalauskas
