2023-05-17 02:44:17
The most anticipated match on the football planet. The great challenge of Pep Guardiola in his challenge to convert the Manchester City European champion, dethroning the king of the competition: the Real Madrid.
The top of Everest for a ‘merengue’ team that went from the impossible Champions League to a show of strength in the present that, to crown it, must pass the tough test at the Etihad Stadium.
Everything, the day that Charles Ancelotti makes history. The Italian coach will make his legend even greater as a coach in the Champions League, surpassing Alex Ferguson’s 190-game ceiling, already as the most successful coach with four conquests.
His Real Madrid faces the most difficult yet. Accustomed to making the impossible real, the last challenge is big words, the Etihad Stadium, where a City resides that has not lost at home since September 2018, when Olympique de Lyon emerged unscathed on the first day of a group stage.
In one of those matches in which Real Madrid has proven to compete and manage the Champions League like no other. Covered in Vinicius as a great reference, Thibaut Courtois as savior, Antonio Rudiger like the kryptonite of the feared Erling Haaland and, above all, the return of the best version of Karim Benzema on the most special night.
The City is one of his favorite victims in Europe. Six goals in eight games. Four of them at the Etihad, where it will be key to recover the lethal image of the Ballon d’Or.
City’s fort awaits Real Madrid
The 26 victories in his field, plus the almost hundred goals he has scored there, is a spectacular letter of introduction for a team that aspires to its second Champions League final and eliminate Real Madrid as it did in 2020, when that Yeah, He arrived at the Etihad with a favorable 1-2 in the first leg.
This time Guardiola knows that he has to be more cautious, that if he has to lose time he will do it, like Ederson and Erling Haaland they have already done this campaign, and that there is no shame in being more defensive and conservative if the party requires it. The most pragmatic City is the first to be at this stage of the season with the possibility of winning the treble and this is no coincidence.
The Premier League is already in the pocket and the next objective is the ‘Champions’, the great desire of this team since it was bought by the money of the United Arab Emirates in 2008.
To do this, Guardiola has Haaland, who started the weekend, but was substituted in the final stretch of the match after scoring his 52nd goal of the season, and with Kevin de Bruynewho did not play a minute against Everton.
If Guardiola does not experiment, as he has already done in other fundamental matches for his team, especially in that Champions League final that he lost against Chelsea and in which he played without a defensive midfielder, the eleven should be the same as the one in the first leg .
Probable formations of Manchester City and Real Madrid:
Manchester City: Ederson; Kyle Walker, Ruben Dias, Manuel; John Stones, Ilkay Gundogan, Rodriguez, Kevin De Bruyne; Jack Grealish, Bernardo Silva and Erling Haaaland.
Real Madrid: Thibaut Courtois; Dani Carvajal, Eder Militao, Antonio Rüdiger, David Alaba; Eduardo Camavinga, Toni Kroos, Luka Modric; Fede Valverde, Vinicius and Karim Benzema.
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