Yahoo News Real Madrid vs Man City preview: Uefa Champions League prediction, live stream, TV channel, H2H, team news
Real Madrid host Manchester City in a mouth-watering Champions League tie between two European heavyweights tonight.
City’s Premier League title challenge is over and while they are preparing for another Carabao Cup final appearance in March with their FA Cup campaign still ongoing, the Champions League remains the big prize for Pep Guardiola this term.
Raheem Sterling will take centre stage on Wednesday. Last week, the England international gave an interview with AS where he hailed Zinedine Zidane and labelled Real Madrid as “fantastic” when question about a move to the Spanish giants.
All eyes will be on the Man City star as Guardiola’s side look to take a decent result back to Manchester with them.
Date: Wednesday, February 26, 2020
Venue: Santiago Bernabeu
Kick-off time: 8pm
Prediction: Real Madrid 1-0 Manchester City
Real have been far from convincing as of late, struggling at home to Celta Vigo before their shock defeat to Levante on Saturday.
Zidane so often brings the best out of Real in this competition however. A slender win for Los Blancos to bring to Manchester.
Tickets
Tickets for Wednesday’s game are sold out.
How to watch
TV channel: The match will be televised live on BT Sport 2, with coverage starting from 7pm.
Live stream: BT Sport subscribers will be able to stream the match online via the video player and the BT Sport app.
Head to head (H2H) history and results
There have been four previous meetings between these two in this competition – during the 2012-13 season Real sealed a thrilling 3-2 win at the Etihad after coming from two goals behind before the two shared a 1-1 draw in Madrid.
They met again at the semi-final stage in 2015-16, with an own goal from Fernando separating the two after 180 minutes with Real marching on to meet neighbours Atletico in the final.
Betting odds
Real Madrid to win: 2/1
Man City to win: 7/5
Draw: 14/5
Team news
Real Madrid will be without Eden Hazard after the Belgian suffered a recurrence of his ankle injury on Saturday.
Hazard, in only his second match back following an ankle problem which had seen him sidelined since November, limped off in the second half of Los Blancos' 1-0 loss at Levante and is now expected to be out for around two months.
The 29-year-old’s absence means Gareth Bale could be in contention for a starting spot on Wednesday, the Welsh winger having been left out of the squad for Saturday’s trip to the Ciutat de Valencia after suffering from gastroenteritis in midweek.
Real Madrid possible XI: Courtois; Carvajal, Varane, Ramos, Mendy; Casemiro, Kroos, Valverde; Isco; Bale, Benzema
Raheem Sterling has made the trip to the Spanish capital after missing City’s recent games against West Ham and Leicester.
Aymeric Laporte hobbled off during the win at the King Power Stadium but has also made the trip after Pep Guardiola played down the severity of the knock.
Manchester City possible XI: Ederson; Walker, Fernandinho, Laporte, Mendy; De Bruyne, Rodri, Silva; Mahrez, Aguero, Bernardo
