Real Madrid vs Manchester City

Manchester City head to Estadio Santiago Bernabeu to meet Real Madrid in the return leg of their Champions League knockout playoff tie, looking to overturn a 3-2 deficit.

Real Madrid pulled off an epic comeback to beat Manchester City in the first leg despite trailing beyond the 85th minute, moving closer to crashing the perennial Premier League champions out of the Champions League knockouts for the third time in four seasons. However, Carlo Ancelotti’s slumped to a disappointing 1-1 draw against La Liga minnows Osasuna at the weekend, maintaining an indifferent trend of alternating between winning (2) and drawing (2) across their last four competitive outings. Nonetheless, Los Blancos’ bid to reach the round of 16 should be safe and sound, considering they’ve progressed from 37 out of 39 previous UEFA two-legged ties when winning the first leg on the road. Furthermore, they’ve failed to score just once in their last 78 Champions League home matches, averaging 2.65 goals per game in that run!

Visiting Manchester City must inflict damage on Real Madrid’s decent overall home record against English clubs in UEFA competitions (W12, D9, L4) to turn this tie on its head. Pep Guardiola’s side recovered from a first-leg heartache with a 4-0 rout of Newcastle United at the weekend as winter signing Omar Marmoush netted a first-half hat-trick. Scoring first won’t guarantee success, considering the Citizens have lost three Champions League games when breaking the deadlock this season. Moreover, Guardiola must halt his longest losing road run at Europe’s top table (L3) against Ancelotti, a manager he has failed to defeat away from home (D2, L2).