Manchester City v Real Madrid: Champions League semi-final, second leg – live | Champions League

Manchester City: Ederson, Walker, Stones, Dias, Akanji, Rodrigo, Gundogan, De Bruyne, Bernardo, Grealish, Haaland

Subs: Ortega Moreno, Carson, Phillips, Laporte, Alvarez, Gomez, Mahrez, Foden, Palmer, Lewis.

Real Madrid: Courtois, Carvajal, Militao, Alaba, Camavinga, Valverde, Kroos, Modric, Rodrygo, Benzema, Vinicius.

Subs: Lunin, Vallejo, Nacho, Hazard, Asensio, Odriozola, Lucas, Tchouameni, Ceballos, Rudiger, Mendy, Mariano

Pep Guardiola fields an unchanged line-up from the side that started in Madrid, while Antonio Rudiger drops to the Real Madrid bench to make way for Eder Militao, who is back from suspension.

That is the only change in Real’s line-up from last week’s first leg but it’s a big call from Carlo Ancelotti, considering how well Rudiger played in that game.

Ruled out with a hamstring injury that has kept him sidelined for Manchester City’s past two games, Nathan Ake is the only player ruled out of Pep Guardiola’s squad through injury or suspension, although the manager promised he plans to do “something different” in this evening’s second leg.

Given his prediliction for overthinking tactics going into crunch encounters in a way that isn’t always beneficial for his team’s chances of success, it should also be added that Pep was also quick to put the minds of supporters at rest and seems unlikely to play Ederson up front in place of Erling Haaland and start Phil Foden in goal.

“I have an idea to do something differently, just to be more fluid in attack,” he told reporters. “It’s nothing special. I’m not overthinking tomorrow, don’t worry guys. Nothing different to what we have done in the past.”

Carlo Ancelotti’s sole injury concern is in regard to Eduardo Camavinga, who limped out of Real’s La Liga win over Getafe last Saturday but may be fit to resume his role at left-back this evening. David Alaba, Rodrygo and Karim Benzema were all rested for the Getafe game but are expected to return tonight.

Ancelotti must also decide whether to start Antonio Rudiger, who kept Erling Haaland on an impressively tight rein last week, or welcome back Eder Militao, who missed the first leg through suspension.

The word from Spain is that both players could start, with Alaba moving to left-back, Camavinga moving to his usual midfield role and Rodrygo dropping to the bench. In other news relating to potential ANcelotti tinkering, Real left-back Ferland Mendy is also fit again after returning from a calf injury he picked up two months ago. The French international played 45 minutes against Getafe.

With Internazionale awaiting the winners in next month’s final, Manchester City host Real Madrid in this semi-final second leg to see who will travel to Istanbul as overwhelming favourites to beat the Italian side. It’s all square between the sides after last week’s opening instalment at the Bernabéu, where Vinicius Jr opened the scoring for Real Madrid while City were on top, only for Kevin De Bruyne to cancel out his strike just as Real Madrid were asserting themselves in the second half.

While the smart(ish) money seems to be on City to prevail with home advantage, only a fool would write off the chances of Real, who last season showed they are completely different gravy when it comes to “finding a way” to not only survive, but thrive in this competition when the odds are against them. Kick-off at the Etihad Stadium is at 8pm (BST) but stay tuned in the meantime for team news and build-up to what could be a bona fide European thriller.