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Manchester City and Real Madrid will square off in the first leg of the first Champions League semifinal, with the visitors slight favorites in the eyes of the bookies. Both teams rested a few players over the weekend, but not too many.
Man City is on the back of a 4-0 win against Stoke, but the Citizens were not too impressive lately – or at anytime this season, for that matter. Stoke is getting beaten 4-0 or 4-1 by everybody right now, so the result was not too relevant. Before Stoke, Man City was held to a 1-1 draw in Newcastle, a match that Newcastle arguably deserved to win. Still, for all of City`s inconsistency, they did win 3 of the last 4 matches and did very well to qualify against PSG in the previous UCL round.
Real Madrid came from behind to defeat Rayo Vallecano over the weekend, claiming, their 5th win in a row (scoring 3+ goals in each of them) and their 11th win in the last 12 matches. Real was down 0-2 but eventually won 3-2, which will give them a confidence boost, particularly as the match was on the road. However, Zidane definitely won`t be happy with his side getting into such trouble against modest opposition.
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Team news & lineups:
Yaya Toure is the only missing player for Manchester City, while for Real Madrid there is a serious doubt over the fitness of Benzema, who could be left on the bench. Ronaldo and Carvajal are also slight doubts, but both will almost definitely be in the starting lineup.
Manchester City: Hart – Sagna, Otamendi, Kompany, Clichy – Fernando, Fernandinho – Navas, De Bruyne, Silva – Aguero
Real Madrid: Navas – Carvajal, Ramos, Pepe, Marcelo – Modric, Casemiro, Kroos – Bale, Jese (Benzema), Ronaldo
For all the money City invested over the last few years, their projected lineup for this game does not look that good. Sagna vs. Ronaldo and Bale vs. Clichy look like nightmare matchups for the Citizens and I certainly do not expect them to escape with a clean sheet here – even if Benzema might not start.
Real Madrid is playing some good football right now and they seemed to have hit maximum form at just the right time. “Los Blancos” will be focused to avoid falling behind on the road considering what happened in the previous round against Wolfsburg, when they lost 0-2 in Germany. I`m sure they will take extra precautions to avoid that happening again.
The visitors are clearly the better team, they are in good form and have the experience from their last away game in Champions League. They will approach this with extra focus and considering that City is not playing anything special, I believe Real Madrid will at least not lose – but I do expect them to win, putting a couple of goals past City’s shaky back line.
My tip on this Champions League semifinal 1st leg is Real Madrid to win with a +0 asian handicap (draw no bet). Prediction: Manchester City – Real Madrid 1-2.
Pick: Real Madrid (+0 Asian Handicap)
Odds: 1.82 @ Unibet
Stake: 8
Possible profit: 6.56
Event date: 26 April
Ronaldo is not even in the squad
Yep, bad news. But pretty much every source in the world had him probable to start last night, even Zidane said he will play. Just reported the facts.
No harm done I’ll take the refund , actually a little bit unlucky in the end as Madrid probably had the best chance of the game but denied by a great save from Hart….