Real Madrid vs Man City: Champions League match preview and team news

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The Football Faithful

·19 February 2025

Real Madrid vs Man City: Champions League match preview and team news

Real Madrid are looking to finish the job when they host Man City in the second leg of their Champions League playoff knockout tie on Wednesday night.

Los Blancos hold a one-goal advantage from the opening leg in Manchester. Ominously, the Premier League outfit have never overturned a first leg deficit in the competition.

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The rivalry between the two clubs has grown over the years after a series of high-profile and dramatic encounters in the latter rounds, meeting ten times since 2020 alone.

The winner of this tie has gone on to win the Champions League in each of the last three seasons. City did so in 2023, but Real have gotten the better of them twice over two legs in that period – will they do so again?

Real Madrid vs Man City match preview and team news

Latest Real Madrid team news

The Spanish giants have been boosted by the return of Antonio Rüdiger and David Alaba, while Lucas Vázquez may be fit enough to make the bench.

Matchday squad: Courtois, Lunin, Sergio Mestre, Alaba, Lucas Vázquez, Vallejo, Fran García, Rüdiger, Mendy, Asencio, Bellingham, Camavinga, Valverde, Modrić, Tchouameni, Arda Güler, Ceballos, Vini Jr., Mbappé, Rodrygo, Endrick and Brahim Diaz.

Latest Man City team news

Erling Haaland is a doubt heading into this game after picking up an injury at the end of Saturday’s 4-0 win over Newcastle United, but has travelled with the squad. Jack Grealish, Nathan Ake and Ruben Dias have also made the journey following injury layoffs.

Matchday squad: Ruben Dias, John Stones, Nathan Ake, Omar Marmoush, Mateo Kovacic, Erling Haaland, Jack Grealish, Jeremy Doku, Nico Gonzalez, Kevin De Bruyne, Stefan Ortega Moreno, Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva, Josko Gvardiol, Savinho, Matheus Nunes, Ederson, Scott Carson, Abdukodir Khusanov, Phil Foden, Rico Lewis, James McAtee.

Read – Manchester City boost as Haaland trains ahead of Real Madrid

Form

Real Madrid: LWDWD

Real have lost just one of their last five games in all competitions, but can count only two victories in that time – and one of them came against Leganés, who are 16th in La Liga, in the Copa del Rey.

Carlo Ancelotti’s men could only manage to draw with Atletico Madrid and Osasuna in the league either side of their win over City. That has seen them slip to second in the table behind Barcelona on goal difference.

Read – Real Madrid predicted lineup vs Man City

Man City: WLWLW

City’s recent form has been up and down, which is at least an improvement on their consistently poor results at the back end of 2024. They secured their place in the knockouts with a 3-1 win over Club Brugge before being trounced 5-1 by Arsenal.

They subsequently scraped past Leyton Orient in the FA Cup after going behind at Brisbane Road and lost to Real a few days later. Despite the bad vibes that have been festering at the club, they managed to pull out their best performance of the season last weekend.

The impact of Omar Marmoush’s signing was on full display at the Etihad as the Egyptian grabbed the first career hat-trick of his career during an utterly dominant performance against Newcastle.

Read – Man City predicted lineup vs Real Madrid

Last Meeting

Man City 2-3 Real Madrid, Uefa Champions League, 11 February 2025

The Premier League champions were stunned at home last week when the visitors scored two late goals to snatch victory on the road.

Haaland finished off a nice team move to give City the lead in the 19th minute, but it was cancelled out on the hour mark by French superstar Kylian Mbappé. The forward attempted a spectacular shot on the volley, but the ball rather fortuitously ended up in the net after it hit his shin and looped up in the air.

Despite creating the majority of chances in the game, Real went behind again after Phil Foden was taken down in the box. Haaland converted the penalty with ten minutes to go for his 49th Champions League goal in just 48 appearances.

It didn’t take long for Real hit back as Ederson palmed Vinicius Jr’s shot directly to former City player Brahim Diaz, who made no mistake from eight yards out.

The Brazilian goalkeeper was at fault again in stoppage time, racing out to close down Vinicius, whose lob found Jude Bellingham to poke home the winner.

What time is kick-off?

Real Madrid and Manchester City will kick off at 20:00 UK time on Wednesday, 19 February, 2025 at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu in Spain.

What TV channel is Real Madrid vs Man City on?

The match will be broadcast live on TNT Sports 1 with coverage starting at 19:00. Highlights will be uploaded to YouTube shortly after the game concludes.

Predicted Lineups

Real Madrid XI: Courtois; Valverde, Asencio, Rüdiger, Mendy; Camavinga, Tchouameni; Rodrygo, Bellingham, Vinicius; Mbappé.

Man City XI: Ederson; Nunes, Stones, Dias, Gvardiol; Gonzalez, Kovacic, De Bruyne; Foden, Marmoush, Haaland.

Who is the referee?

Uefa have appointed Romanian referee Istvan Kovacs as the match official for the second leg. He will be assisted by Mihai Marica and Ferencz Tunyogi, and Horațiu Feșnic will be the fourth official. Dutch referee Dennis Higler will be the Video Assistant Referee and he will be assisted by Polish official Tomasz Kwiatkowski.