Manchester City confirm 22-man travelling squad to face Real Madrid in UEFA Champions League Last-16 Play-Off Second-Leg | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola has named and finalised his Manchester City travelling squad for the UEFA Champions League clash against Real Madrid this week.

The Premier League champions have plenty of work to do if they wish to proceed into the last-16 stage of the competition where they would face either Atletico Madrid or Bayer Leverkusen at the first knockout stage.

An Erling Haaland brace had seemingly set City on their way to a much-needed advantage to take to the Santiago Bernabeu before two goals from Brahim Diaz and Jude Bellingham in the closing stages of last week’s first-leg gave Real Madrid a 3-2 lead on Wednesday night.

Manchester City have given themselves much more positivity and optimism in the lead up to this encounter though, having comfortably dismissed of fellow top-four challengers Newcastle United in the Premier League in large part thanks to Omar Marmoush.

The Egyptian star recorded his first, second, and third goals for Manchester City on Saturday afternoon as his hat-trick was then added to by James McAtee late on in the contest to secure three points from a 4-0 win.

Much of the same performance levels will certainly be needed in the Spanish capital this week with City needing to win by a two-goal margin in order to overturn the first-leg defeat to knockout the holders of the tournament.

Before then, Manchester City have confirmed a 22-man travelling squad that left Manchester Airport on Tuesday afternoon for the Spanish capital of Madrid!

22-man Manchester City travelling squad vs Real Madrid

Goalkeepers: Ederson, Stefan Ortega Moreno, Scott Carson.

Defenders: Rico Lewis, Matheus Nunes, Abdukodir Khusanov, Ruben Dias, John Stones, Nathan Ake, Josko Gvardiol.

Midfielders: Nico Gonzalez, Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva, Mateo Kovacic, Phil Foden, Kevin De Bruyne, James McAtee.

Forwards: Savinho, Jeremy Doku, Omar Marmoush, Erling Haaland, Jack Grealish.

The confirmed squad list for the trip to Madrid means that Manuel Akanji, Oscar Bobb, and Rodri remain the only players sidelined from the first-team squad through their respective longer-term injury problems.

It also means that three players who took part in open training at the City Football Academy on Tuesday morning in Manchester have not made the squad, with Vitor Reis not named in City’s updated roster for the knockout stage of the competition.

Academy duo Justin Oboavwoduo and Stephen Mfuni have also not travelled despite their involvement in training earlier in the day.

The obvious boosts for Manchester City will be the inclusions of Ruben Dias, Nathan Ake, and Jack Grealish after their absences from the weekend’s win over Newcastle, while Erling Haaland has avoided any serious injury after his knee problem on Saturday.