Who: Manchester Metropolis vs Actual Madrid
What: UEFA Champions League – Knockout section, first leg
The place: Etihad Stadium, Manchester, UK
When: Tuesday February 11 at 8pm native time (20:00 GMT)
Observe Al Jazeera’s live text and photo commentary stream of the match.
LaLiga leaders Actual Madrid journey to England to play struggling Manchester Metropolis on Tuesday within the first leg of the home-and-away knockout section of the UEFA Champions League (UCL).
Actual lifted each the LaLiga and Champions League titles final season and are robust favourites to prevail in opposition to the Premier League champions.
These two international soccer powerhouses get pleasure from a fierce rivalry on the very prime of European soccer and it might be untimely to dismiss Metropolis’s possibilities – regardless of a dire home season up to now – once they nonetheless area a number of world-class gamers who can be further motivated to tug off an upset in opposition to the 15-time UCL champions.
How dangerous is it for Man Metropolis in the mean time?
Manchester Metropolis’s season might have reached a brand new low on Saturday once they needed to come from behind to beat English third-tier aspect Leyton Orient 2-1 within the fourth spherical of the FA Cup.
An already wretched season for Pep Guardiola’s aspect regarded like turning right into a nightmare upset as Orient stubbornly protected a Sixteenth-minute lead given to them by Jamie Donley’s long-range surprise strike that went in through the crossbar and the again of Metropolis keeper Stefan Ortega.
Metropolis huffed and puffed in response and Abdukodir Khusanov’s equaliser within the 56th minute, adopted by Kevin De Bruyne scoring what turned out to be the game-winner within the 79th minute allowed the Cityzens to carry on and progress to the FA Cup quarterfinals.
Within the Champions League, Man Metropolis and Actual Madrid meet for the fourth consecutive season, however this time a lot earlier within the competitors largely resulting from Cityzens’ struggles.
Pep Guardiola’s males completed within the twenty second spot on the UCL league section desk after successful solely three matches out of eight. Metropolis have been comfortably crushed by Sporting Lisbon and Juventus, blew a 3-0 lead to attract 3-3 at residence to Feyenoord and conceded 4 occasions within the last 35 minutes at Paris Saint-Germain.
What’s the latest type information on Actual Madrid?
Regardless of their place on the prime of the LaLiga desk, Madrid have endured a blended begin to their season, resulting in hypothesis that this may very well be supervisor Carlo Ancelotti’s final season in cost.
Two weeks in the past, Los Blancos have been on the cusp of operating away with the Spanish league title however an sudden 1-0 loss to Espanyol (February 1) and a disappointing, come-from-behind 1-1 residence draw in opposition to Atletico (February 8) leaves the defending LaLiga champions with a slender one-point lead atop the desk.
Within the Champions League group fixtures, Actual Madrid hasn’t carried out significantly better than Man Metropolis, successful solely 5 of their eight matches.
Ancelotti’s aspect recovered to realize a playoff place – however their reward for a sluggish marketing campaign was dealing with the aspect they changed as Champions League winners final season, Manchester Metropolis.
Are there any damage issues for Man Metropolis and Actual Madrid heading into the playoff?
Key midfielder Rodri will miss the tie regardless of being retained in Metropolis’s Champions League squad within the hope he may return from an ACL tear earlier than the top of the season.
However Metropolis’s three new signings – Omar Marmoush, Abdukodir Khusanov and Gonzalez – are free to face the Spanish champions, whereas Metropolis are additional boosted by the return from damage of Ruben Dias, Nathan Ake and Jeremy Doku.
Actual Madrid have their very own damage troubles with out defenders Dani Carvajal, Eder Militao, David Alaba and Antonio Rudiger.
Potential Lineups:
Manchester Metropolis:
Ederson (GK); Nunes, Akanji, Stones, Gvardiol, Silva, De Bruyne, Foden, Marmoush, Grealish, Haaland.
Actual Madrid:
Courtois (GK); Vazquez, Tchouameni, Asencio, Garcia, Valverde, Modric, Rodrygo, Bellingham, Mbappe, Vini Jr.
Head-to-Head:
- Whole matches: 14
- Man Metropolis gained: 5
- Actual Madrid gained: 4
- Attracts: 5
What occurred the final time these sides met?
The groups final met within the 2024 UEFA Champions League quarterfinals with Actual Madrid’s Antonio Rudiger scoring the decisive penalty to elevate his aspect to an edge-of-your-seat 4-3 shootout away victory over holders Manchester Metropolis at Etihad Stadium.
In two of the three ties between the perimeters up to now three years, Madrid started as underdogs, have been largely outplayed and but nonetheless progressed at Metropolis’s expense.
European champions Madrid host the return leg of their playoff spherical conflict in opposition to Manchester Metropolis on the Bernabeu on February 19.
