Real Madrid and Manchester City make UEFA Champions League history after group-stage draw | OneFootball

Manchester City are set to face Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League for a fifth consecutive season after Thursday’s 2025-26 group-phase draw.

City have developed a habit of facing off against the Spanish giants in Europe since they met for the second time in the history of the competition in 2020, with Guardiola’s side coming on top with a 4-2 aggregate victory in the Round of 16 before a quarter-final exit at the hands of Lyon.

It was under City’s first Premier League winning manager, Roberto Mancini, that the Blues came up against Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League, with City drawing Los Blancos in a tricky group in the 2012-13 campaign.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s last-minute winner helped Real Madrid seal a stunning 3-2 victory at the Santiago Bernabeu, with Sergio Aguero’s penalty helping City salvage a 1-1 draw against what was then a Carlo Ancelotti outfit at the Etihad Stadium.

With match-winning performances in both legs of the 2015-16 UEFA Champions League quarter-final in his debut season at the Etihad Stadium, Kevin De Bruyne dragged Manchester City to the semi-final of the competition for the first time in the club’s history.

However, City fell short and fell to a narrow 1-0 aggregate defeat to a Zinedine Zidane-led side, which was months after Manuel Pellegrini announced he would be leaving the club at the end of the 2015-16 season and would be replaced by Guardiola.

Fast forward to 2020 and City won both legs of a Round of 16 tie against Real Madrid to lay down a marker to the rest of Europe, with that feeling of success short-lived as the Blues went on to suffer another disappointing knockout defeat in the quarter-final.

Two years on, City threw away a 5-3 aggregate lead in the closing minutes of the second leg at the Santiago Bernabeu, with summer target Rodrygo scoring twice in injury time to force the tie to extra time and Karin Benzema converting a penalty to complete one of Real Madrid’s greatest European comebacks.

However, City had the last laugh when they played Real Madrid out of the park in the second leg of their semi-final tie at the Etihad Stadium and ran out 4-0 winners on the night (5-1 on aggregate) to book a place in the final against Inter Milan – en route to the club’s maiden UEFA Champions League crown.

Real Madrid have outdone Manchester City in the knockout stages of the competition each of the previous two seasons, with City once again drawing Los Blancos in the group-stage of the 2025-26 campaign – with the fixture becoming the most common in the competition since the 2021-22 season with eight meetings, as per Opta Joe.

City will face Xabi Alonso’s side at the Santiago Bernabeu on matchday two of their group-stage campaign, which will also see Guardiola and co come up against Borussia Dortmund (H), Bayer Leverkusen (H), Villarreal (A), Napoli (H), Bodo/Glimt (A), Galatasaray (H) and AS Monaco (A).

Manchester City officials have assessing potential late openings in the transfer market ahead of the September 1 deadline and this week’s UEFA Champions League group-stage draw will give the board all the more incentive to plug as many loopholes in the squad that remain in the final days of the window.