Team news, manager quotes, how to watch, tickets and match stats for Real Madrid vs Manchester City.
Yaya Toure will be fit for Manchester City's trip to Real Madrid on Wednesday, manager Manuel Pellegrini has confirmed.
The Ivory Coast midfielder missed the first leg, and Sunday's 4-1 defeat to Southampton after limping off in the 4-0 win over Stoke 10 days ago.
But his return to training hands the Chilean a huge boost as he seeks to take City to their maiden European final.
The 62-year-old has called on his players to produce the
performance of their lives, and wants them to attack from the first
minute.
“The pressure is high in the Bernabeu, so it is important that we are focused,” Pellegrini said.
“But we have the personality, mentality and the football to be able to deal with that.
“We will try to play in the way we play every week.
“The best way to reach the final is to play the way we know. We
tried in Manchester but it was not a good day for creative players. We
will try to attack.”
TEAM NEWS
Cristiano Ronaldo is fit for Real Madrid after missing the goalless first leg with a hamstring strain. Karim Benzema, however, missed training on Tuesday and is a major doubt for the clash at the Bernabeu.
Manuel Pellegrini confirmed that Yaya Toure has been in training
all week and has flown with team-mates to the Spanish capital. Samir Nasri (ineligible), David Silva and Pablo Zabaleta are all unavailable, however.
MANAGER QUOTES
Zinedine Zidane [in AS]: "It’d be a failure.
We’re in good form and we want to go through. It’s a very difficult game
and if we don’t go through it’s a failure, because that’s what we want.
It will be more difficult than the first leg, because everything will
be decided. We’re conscious of that. We will respect the opponent,
because they have very good players, especially in attack."
Real Madrid's Karim Benzema celebrates his first goal during the match - Reuters
Manchester City are currently unbeaten in six Champions League
matches; their longest run ever in the competition (W3 D3).
City have lost three of their last four Champions League matches
away in Spain; although they did claim victory in their most recent
outing in the country (2015/16 group stage v Sevilla).
Real Madrid have played five times at home in the Champions League this season; keeping a clean sheet in all of them.
Eight Manchester City players have scored away from home this season in the Champions League; a competition-high.
Cristiano Ronaldo has only missed seven of Real Madrid’s 80
Champions League games since his arrival at the club in 2009. In that
time, the Merengues have won 71% of their matches when he has featured (52 out of 73) compared to 43% (3 out of 7) when he’s been absent.
Ronaldo, who might be absent, has scored/assisted 77% of Real
Madrid’s goals in this season’s competition (20 out of 26). He’s only
goal away from the Champions League record for most goals in a Champions
League campaign, a record he currently holds (17 in 2013/14).
Karim Benzema has scored in two of his three Champions League
games against Manchester City. However, he’s failed to find the net in
his last four Champions League games; only once has he gone on a longer
drought in this competition (five games, December 2009-November 2010).
Keylor Navas
has kept 10 clean sheets in 11 games in his Champions League career.
He’s saved 30 of the 32 shots on target he’s faced in the competition.
Sergio Agüero hasn’t had a shot on target in the Champions League for 432 minutes. His last one was his goal against Dynamo Kiev in February.
Agüero has failed to score in his last four Champions League
games, his longest drought in the competition since his run of five
games without a goal between November 2011 and October 2012.
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