The first leg of the 2:45 Champions League semi-finals will begin tomorrow morning, and Manchester City's home game against Real Madrid is also a high-value competition, the two giants are full of stars, this battle is also considered to be a goal battle, but the better result for the home team is a small score clean sheet opponent. Guardiola's home game against Real Madrid led by Carlo Ancelotti needs to be better planned, because the Galaxy won the Champions League away to Chelsea in the last round, and lost the second leg but finally advanced, and Manchester City need to avoid repeating the same mistakes at home. However, Chelsea are the goalkeeper who made a mistake to send points, and Manchester City's goalkeeper has been solid in recent times and should be able to strengthen the defense.
Liverpool played Villarreal at home in the early hours of Thursday morning, although the La Liga powerhouse is not as strong as Real Madrid, but the team's last round of the Champions League to eliminate Bayern in the Bundesliga also showed its own strength, so Liverpool can not take this battle lightly. The two Premier League finalists are all home battles and good aspects of this round of the Champions League, and the team can also prepare more calmly. Manchester City need to strengthen the efficiency of the offensive end, and if the start is successful, the chances of taking down the opponent are higher. Liverpool need to break the dense defense, and a draw may exist. Manchester City's opponents are stronger, and the home game also needs to defend Benzema and Modric, because these two have been extremely critical in previous matches, giving opponents a away goal if the defense is not good, and the second leg is in danger of being out.
Relevant statistics show that the combined value of Manchester City and Real Madrid players is as high as 1.7 billion euros, the value of Manchester City's whole team is about 959 million euros, the core of the team such as De Bruyne, Sterling, Foden, Jesus and so on sits, the whole team of Real Madrid is worth 756 million euros, there are veteran Benzema, Modric, new Core Venus and other core players, Manchester City is the first highest, Real Madrid is sixth, so this game Manchester City is the optimistic side.
The two teams have played 6 games in the Champions League, and the record is evenly divided, but Real Madrid has participated in the Champions League more times than Manchester City, the team has won the Champions League trophies many times, and the three consecutive championships during Zizou's coaching period, Manchester City has never been involved in the Champions League, so the desire for the championship is stronger this season. The two teams have previously met in the group stage of the 12-13 season, with Real Madrid 3-2 at home and 1-1 away. In the 15-16 season, Real Madrid won 0-0 at home in the first leg and 1-0 at home in the second leg. In the 19-20 Champions League quarter-finals, Real Madrid lost 1-2 to Manchester City in two legs. The record of the two teams is 2 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses, scoring 7 goals each. Manchester City has improved its strength under the leadership of Guardiola, and Real Madrid has reached a critical period of replacement of the old and new, so Manchester City is indeed superior to its opponents in this campaign.
This match is also the third time Pep Guardiola met with Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-finals, after 2011, Guardiola led Barca to eliminate Mourinho's Real Madrid, but in 2014, Guardiola led Bayern to Ancelotti's Real Madrid was eliminated, and then Guardiola also waved away the Bundesliga giants, and did not lead the team to win the Champions League has also become a pity for Guardiola, this season the two coaches met again, Guardiola is more eager to eliminate the opponent.
The real madrid veteran's physical fitness in the second half is a hidden worry, and the team's Arabba and Casemiro are suspicious and are likely to miss this game. The manager deliberately gave Modric a break in order to play a more crucial role in this game. Manchester City, Walker and Stones may be injured, Canselo is suspended, and the team also needs to arrange the replacement of these three people reasonably. City are unbeaten in their last seven games, winning two in a row. Real Madrid has won four consecutive league games, and the next round of league wins will win early, so this game may also be moderately reserved for the subsequent league.
The Premier League duo has the impact of the Champions League, and the odds of this weekend's league upset have also increased, Manchester City away to Leeds United in the early hours of this Sunday morning, Liverpool against Newcastle on Saturday, the top two are away to mid-range teams, the two teams do not have relegation worries, especially Newcastle is currently ranked 9th in the league, may not be too desperate, but even so Liverpool can not be lightly opposed. The current battle for the top of the Premier League is Manchester City and Liverpool, and if both teams lose points, the 14-point difference between third-placed Chelsea will not replace it, so what Manchester City and Liverpool are looking forward to is that each other will lose points, especially after the Champions League.
The previous 34th round of the Premier League ended, the top 4 teams all took three points, of which Manchester City 5-1 defeated Watford more strongly, Liverpool 2-0 Everton also had more than half of the opponent's iron barrel trapped, Chelsea 1-0 West Ham is the last substitute savior, Arsenal 3-1 Manchester United's game sought-after advantage is obvious, after last season's lack of European seats, the Gunners are expected to win the top four in the league, which is also different from last season, Manchester United can only fight for Europa League qualification next.
Everton's new coach is Lampard, the lamp also put some effort in blocking Liverpool, unfortunately the team's full line of defense only held the first 61 minutes, Liverpool scored in the 62nd minute by the substitute Origi, in fact, the general has made many substitutions, although this offensive attribute has weakened somewhat this season, but it is also very valuable to help the team to win all three points in this round of matches, after all, once the team loses points, it can only watch Manchester City win the championship. However, from the process of the last round of the league, Liverpool's performance is not as good as Manchester City, and there is a Champions League semi-final game in the middle of this week, Liverpool needs to guard against points, and Origi may also become a surprise soldier who cannot be attacked for a long time.
At present, the suspense of the five major leagues is only the Premier League and Serie A, the Serie A team has lost the Champions League, so the next is only the league competition, and Manchester City and Liverpool want to stand on the top of Europe, so it is bound to invest more energy, which will also make the league more difficult. In addition to the battle for the top of the table, the Premier League battle for the fourth is also very fierce, at present Chelsea is temporarily worry-free, Arsenal, Tottenham and Manchester United are competing for Champions League and European places, this round of the league Tottenham Hotspur 0-0 Brentford, Manchester United lost to Arsenal, Spurs less than one round of the case than Manchester United 4 points, so the Red Devils can only try to qualify for European competition as much as possible.
It can be said that the core players of Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur are very depressed, Manchester United and Ronaldo can score face-saving goals, while Kane and Son Heung-min face the promotion team and have no gains, Conte's coaching team has not brought about qualitative changes, and it is difficult to compete for fourth place this season. Manchester United's 1-3 away defeat to Arsenal also dashed hopes of a draw, and Ronaldo's second goal was judged to be offside, but none of this could change the Red Devils' current predicament, and the manager really needed to think of a way.
What is incomprehensible is that the Manchester United manager blamed the penalty problem to C Ronaldo after the game, who said that Ronaldo did not want to take the penalty, and did not say that B Fee was the first penalty player he had approved, because then the manager and B Fee were responsible, and people were disappointed that the manager would have such remarks, which could also lead to problems in the dressing room. In fact, the stability of Ronaldo's penalty is higher than that of B fee, and the latter's recent performance is very bad, and the penalty should indeed be given to C Ronaldo, who has scored in the game, to take the penalty.
Finally, I would like to say that this weekend's competition will be more intense, because the fate of the Premier League champions and the top four and relegation zone teams is also more likely. The two big games in midweek are also very critical, and tomorrow morning let's take a look at Manchester City vs Real Madrid.