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Three talking points ahead of Real Madrid vs Manchester City | Champions League Round of 16
Real Madrid take on a high-flying Manchester City in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League Round of 16 tie tomorrow night at the Santiago Bernabeu, and the forms of the two teams could not be further apart.
The visitors are unbeaten in their last eleven games across all competitions and last lost a match only back in January in the UEFA Champions League.
Real Madrid, meanwhile, have lost two of their last four games and were seconds away from a draw against Celta Vigo at the weekend.
Real Madrid vs Manchester City has become an annual event at this point in time in the Champions League. In fact, the two teams already faced off in the league phase earlier this season, with the Cityzens emerging 2-1 victors.
Madrid Universal brings you three talking points ahead of Real Madrid vs Manchester City.
A massive home leg
The final match day of the league phase of the UEFA Champions League took a toll on Real Madrid’s campaign in the competition, handing them several setbacks along the way.
For starters, Los Blancos were forced to play the additional playoff round against Benfica in the competition over two legs – adding two games to their already hectic schedule.
Concurrently, however, Real Madrid now have the disadvantage of playing the second leg of the Round of 16 clash against Manchester City away from home.
Tomorrow’s first leg will be played at the Santiago Bernabeu, and Pep Guardiola’s side will have the home advantage for the all-important second leg. Needless to say, that massive changes the mindset with which Real Madrid enter Wednesday’s game.
The goal tomorrow night will thus be not just to win but to seal a lead strong enough to confidently take to the opposition’s home venue later in the month.
For all the setbacks that they enter the game with, that objective clarity of approach is a must, and it has to reflect in the team’s attitude, energy, and effectiveness tomorrow night.
One man attack?
For a game of such importance, Real Madrid are seriously understaffed in attack – the department that will matter the most to take a solid lead.
Kylian Mbappe has still not recovered from his knee injury and is definitely ruled out of tomorrow’s game. Not having the Frenchman comes as a huge blow to Alvaro Arbeloa’s plans.
Rodrygo Goes is another player who will be unavailable on the night, although his injury is a far longer-term setback after he underwent surgery for a cruciate ligament rupture.
The two absences, needless to say, serve as major blows for Real Madrid’s attacking department and it is only compounded by the fact that the likes of Brahim Diaz and Gonzalo Garcia have not looked convincing in recent times.
All eyes, thus, will be on Vinicius Jr. tomorrow night as the Brazilian finds himself in a situation where he may well be the team’s one-man army in attack.
Vinicius has been in good form in recent weeks and there is no reason to believe that he cannot pull off what is expected of him. The fact that he will not have much support, however, does not help.
Massive defensive test
While most of Real Madrid’s focus and attention will be towards scoring goals and securing a lead of tangible magnitude on Wednesday night at the Santiago Bernabeu, an equal amount of pressure will lie on the defence.
After all, even the back-line is suffering from key absentees ahead of the game and will not be at full-strength.
Eder Militao and David Alaba will continue to be absent in central defence for Real Madrid, and all signs point to Antonio Rudiger starting alongside Raul Asencio once more.
Further, Alvaro Carreras misses the game through injury as well, forcing the coach to select one of Ferland Mendy or Fran Garcia as the starting left-back on the night.
Los Blancos’ defensive line has not looked consistently solid for a while. That, coupled with Carreras’ absence, leaves the department in a questionable situation ahead of such a massive clash.
Manchester City enter the game with some of the best in the business fit and raring to go. Erling Haaland, Rayan Cherki, Bernardo Silva, and possibly Phil Foden are expected to feature on the night.
For a defence that recently struggled to hold up against Getafe and Celta Vigo, stepping up and facing the elite forwards of Manchester City’s calibre will not be easy. Yet, it will be as vital as the attacking department’s contributions will prove to be.
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Clean sheet at last, Vinicius’ moment of madness | Three takeaways from Real Madrid 1-0 Villarreal
Real Madrid took all three points against Villarreal on Saturday night to get back on track after the international break, and thus ensured they did not continue sinking after the defeat at the Madrid derby.
Jose Mourinho made some bold decisions in his starting XI as he benched Vinicius Jr., playing Yan Diomande on the left-flank and Arda Guler on the right flank.
The dynamics worked out decently well, and it was eventually the new record signing who scored for the club to hand them the lead and the win.
Compared to performances before the international break, there was an improvement in terms of Real Madrid’s level, but the team are still far off from where they must be to make a strong case to be title contenders.
Madrid Universal brings you three takeaways from Real Madrid 1-0 Villarreal.
The struggle continues
All of Real Madrid’s season so far has been of struggles and difficult wins, and the same theme continued last night as the team returned from the international break.
Los Blancos have failed to look convincing for a long time now, and they did not dominate Villarreal in any capacity last night as well.
Continuing with the same theme of winning by narrow margins and scraping past the finish line, they registered yet another 1-0 win that did not leave anyone convinced.
Yan Diomande’s goal was the only positive takeaway from the night, and even that was made possible only after a narrow offside decision went in their favor. With the firepower they have, struggling to create chances to such an extent seems inexcusable.
With a difficult month ahead, last night’s game did not give fans any reason to believe matters have changed after the international break. At this rate, the coming month could be a bleak one for Los Blancos.
Vinicius’ moment of madness
Of all the events that transpired at the Santiago Bernabeu last night, the most memorable one was the incident involving Vinicius Jr.’s goal, and embarrassingly so.
Having seemingly scored a great goal ten minutes after Diomande’s opener, the Brazilian star was on his way to celebrate the achievement, but what unfolded thereafter was embarrassing.
The VAR found an incident of Vinicius pulling the hair of a Villarreal player for no apparent reason in the build-up to the goal, and at this point there can be no arguments defending the player’s behavior.
As one of the biggest names of one of Europe’s biggest clubs, there has to be a sense of responsibility in one’s role – something Vinicius simply does not seem to have. What he did last night was simply inexcusable.
A lot can be said about VAR’s selective interference, but what cannot be argued is that what Vinicius did last night was a clear red card offense.
He will now miss El Clasico and will serve at least a two-game suspension. Whether that is a boon or a bane for Real Madrid, at this point, remains unknown and only time will tell.
A clean sheet at last
Ahead of last night’s win over Villarreal, Real Madrid had only overseen one clean sheet in eight games across competitions.
In that sense, simply keeping the opposition from scoring last night was an achievement in itself for Los Blancos, and it could not have come at a better time.
Real Madrid entered the game without many of their regular defenders available, especially with Dean Huijsen suspended and Eder Militao and Raul Asencio out through injury.
Ibrahima Konate and Antonio Rudiger, thus, started in central defense on the night and both did phenomenally well for Los Blancos. They were joined by Alvaro Carreras and Trent Alexander-Arnold, both of whom complemented the duo well.
The right-back was a relatively weak link defensively, but Konate and Rudiger were spot-on with their reading of the game to keep the Villarreal attack from scoring. They both did eventually pick up yellow cards, but Villarreal finished the game without a single big chance created.
Finding defensive stability, which is the cornerstone of Mourinho’s project, is massive for the manager, and he will be pleased to have a new working formula.
What happens after Huijsen’s return, however, remains to be seen, as the manager may well like to hand the new duo some more chances to prove their consistency.
