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Real Madrid vs Manchester City – Match Preview

After a 1st leg stalemate this tie is still very much in the balance and both sides will very much fancy their chances of progressing to the finals although for probably different reasons. Real welcome back the mercurial Cristiano Ronaldo back from injury while Manchester City will feel like they can get a crucial away goal and do enough to get past Los Blancos.

Gareth Bale has been holding the attacking fort relatively well as of late with key goals in league wins over both Rayo Vallecano and Real Sociedad. Those wins have kept Zinedine Zidan’e side just a point from both Barcelona and Atletico Madrid and are ready to pounce on any slip ups.

Bale was kept quiet by Vincent Kompany in the first leg and if it was just Bale again then City would be even more confident going into this 2nd leg but with the return of Ronaldo it very much changes the complexion of the tie and all of a sudden Real are a different beast in which to tame.

City had Joe Hart to thank after his 1st leg heroics maintained a clean sheet for City, his late save from Pepe’s stabbed effort rescued a draw in a game where if either side had won it would have been harsh on the other.

Hart wasn’t quite in as imperious form on Sunday as a much changed City side were beaten by Southampton at St Mary’s. It was a much changed side as Manuel Pellegrini put his full focus into Tonight’s encounter. Will that decision be justified if they move on to the Final this Evening.

Pellegrini wanted the game bought forward to Saturday to give his side an extra day’s preparation but Southampton refused his request, therefore he felt the only option was to rest key players and it’s fair to say in the short term at least the decision has backfired.

Before Ronaldo was announced fit I had a feeling that City could nick this one, now I’m not so sure. So often the Portuguese star has been the difference and get the feeling he will be exactly that at The Bernabeu Tonight.

That said I still fancy City to score but unfortunately for them I think Real will just score 1 more and in turn give us a repeat of the 2014 Champions League Final against Atletico Madrid. I’m going to go for a 2-1 to Real.

 

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