John Stones, Bernardo, Riyad Mahrez and Phil Foden return, while four-goal hero against the Hornets Gabriel Jesus retains his place.
Joao Cancelo (suspended), Fernandinho, Raheem Sterling and Jack Grealish make way.
Teams
City: Ederson, Stones, Zinchenko, Dias (c), Laporte, Rodrigo, De Bruyne, Bernardo, Foden, Mahrez, Jesus
Subs: Steffen, Carson, Ake, Sterling, Gundogan, Grealish, Fernandinho, Egan-Riley, Mbete, Palmer, McAtee, Lavia
Real Madrid: Courtois, Carvajal, Militão, Alaba, Mendy, Valverde, Kroos, Modric, Rodrygo, Benzema, Vinícius Júnior
Formation: 4-3-3
With Cancelo suspended, Stones is likely to deputise at right back, with Aymeric Laporte and Ruben Dias in the centre.
Rodrigo, Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo will make the midfield trio, with Foden, Mahrez and Jesus the rotating front three.
City looking to post advantage
With the second leg in Spain to come in just eight days, City will hope to take an advantage of some sort into the return game.
Our matches after the games against Real Madrid are certainly kinder than the previous round, when we faced Liverpool on each occasion!
The opportunity for wholesale changes after tonight is minimal (bar a sizeable, if unlikely, home victory), so the 40-mile trip to Elland Road on Saturday represents a less hectic schedule, as does a home game against Newcastle after our midweek trip to the Bernabeu.
The Premier League games are equally as important as the Blues try to fend off Liverpool’s challenge – the tweaking of the starting XI can rarely have mattered more.
City must stop Benzema
Karim Benzema is already guaranteed the best season of his career this campaign with a phenomenal 39 goals in 40 games.
His numbers have always been good, but during Cristiano Ronaldo’s time at the club, he was forced to play second fiddle.
Tonight will be his 600th game for Los Blancos and he is one shy of 400 club career goals.
At 34, he is better than ever – whether that is due to Real Madrid’s much-publicised courting of Kylian Mbappe or not only he will know, but City’s defenders will need to be at their very best this evening – and next week - if we are to progress to second Champions League final in succession.
Head-to-head
- This will be the seventh meeting between Manchester City and Real Madrid in European competition, with each of the previous six coming in the UEFA Champions League since 2012-13. After failing to win the first four (D2 L2), City have won both legs in the Round of 16 against them in this competition in 2019-20.
- Real Madrid haven’t won any of their previous three trips to face Manchester City in European competition (D2 L1), with the most recent two also coming in the knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League – 0-0 in the 2015-16 semi-final first leg and 1-2 in the 2019-20 Round of 16 second leg.
- Pep Guardiola (four wins) and Carlo Ancelotti (two wins) have faced each other on six previous occasions as opposing managers – all four of Guardiola’s wins came against Ancelotti’s Everton in the Premier League, while the Italian’s two victories came in the UEFA Champions League semi-finals in 2013-14, with his Real Madrid side beating Bayern Munich 5-0 on aggregate.
- City manager Pep Guardiola has eliminated Real Madrid from the knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League on two previous occasions, beating them 3-1 on aggregate in the 2010-11 semi-finals with Barcelona and 4-2 on aggregate in the 2019-20 Round of 16 with Manchester City. Guardiola is looking to become the first manager to eliminate Real Madrid from the UEFA Champions League on three occasions.
- Raheem Sterling has netted 24 goals for Manchester City in the UEFA Champions League. If he scores in this game, he would overtake Paul Scholes (24) and trail only Wayne Rooney (30) for the most goals scored by an English player for an English team in the competition’s history.
- Only Kingsley Coman (4.1) has a higher expected assists total than Manchester City’s Joao Cancelo in the UEFA Champions League in 2021-22, indicating the quality of chances created by the Portuguese this season. The third-ranked player for expected assists this season, meanwhile, is Real Madrid’s Vinícius Júnior .
- After conceding in seven straight Champions League matches between last season’s final and this season’s final group stage match, Manchester City have since kept a clean sheet in four successive matches; the last team to keep a clean sheet in five knockout stage matches in a row in the competition were Juventus in 2016-17.
- City are unbeaten across their last 19 home matches in the Champions League, only failing to win twice – this run was preceded by three consecutive home defeats in 2018.
- Despite playing only 179 minutes at home in the Champions League this season, while starting just once, Gabriel Jesus is City’s top scorer at the Etihad Stadium this season in the competition with three goals; all three goals were scored as a substitute.
- After winning only five of their first 18 matches against Spanish opponents in Europe (D4 L9), Manchester City have since won four of their last five such games (D1).
