MANCHESTER CITY V REAL MADRID CHAMPIONS LEAGUE PREVIEW 2016

Man City

It's hard to know what is more surprising: is it that, in a largely disappointing campaign, Man City are about to participate in their first ever Champions League semi-final, or the fact that after months of poor form, they are actually entering the occasion with a little momentum behind them?

The Citizens have won five and drawn two of their seven April encounters in all competitions, including four from five in the Premier League. To put that into context, they have prevailed in as many of their last five top-flight assignments as they did in the 12 prior to that.

The injury bulletin is the most positive that it has been in months too, with Vincent Kompany and Fernandinho left out entirely for the 4-0 weekend victory over Stoke and Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne not needed from the bench, keeping them all fresh for Real Madrid. The only player ruled out is Samir Nasri, who isn't in the European squad, while Fernando and Yaya Toure are doubts.

Real Madrid

The ten-time European champions are on a five-match winning streak, yet were worked far harder than Man City in their final contest before this Champions League semi-final first leg in being forced to rally from 2-0 down after 14 minutes away to relegation-threatened neighbours Rayo Vallecano.

This comeback, completed by Gareth Bale in the 81st minute, means that they have a chance of not just salvaging continental success from a disjointed season, but also perhaps La Liga as well, with Zinedine Zidane's men a point behind Barcelona and Atletico Madrid with three fixtures remaining.

Those three points at Campo de Futbol de Vallecas potentially came at a price as Karim Benzema sustained an injury days after Cristiano Ronaldo went down with a muscle complaint, though those issues weren't severe enough to prevent them from travelling to Manchester.

Match Odds

Real Madrid have won more of their last dozen games than any other club still in the Champions League, getting the job done on 11 occasions, although it can't be ignored that their sole screw-up in that sequence came in the away first leg of their quarter-final against Wolfsburg.

Man City are on the strongest home run of their Champions League existence, winning three of their past four and drawing the other in a tie that they already led. Things are going so well that when they merely needed a 0-0 draw to see off the mighty Paris St-Germain, they beat them instead.

History is overwhelmingly in favour of Manuel Pellegrini's side, with the first-leg hosts progressing from each of the most recent eight semi-finals in the competition, and seven of those delivering in the first leg. The Capital One Cup holders are 3.00 to achieve the same kind of advantage.

While this is an unfamiliar position for Man City, Real have sampled this kind of scenario many times this decade, yet they have very few uplifting experiences to draw on. They have gone abroad for their semi-final first leg in three of the last four years and were defeated in every collision.
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To Score

Watch out for aguero, kelechi iheanacho, Ronaldo and Bale