Man City vs Real Madrid LIVE: Champions League latest score and goal updates today

Evening Standard

·11. Februar 2025

Man City vs Real Madrid LIVE: Champions League latest score and goal updates today

European heavyweights go head-to-head in first leg of play-off tie

Man City go up against Real Madrid at the Etihad Stadium tonight in the first leg of a mouthwatering Champions League play-off tie. Pep Guardiola’s side had to come from behind to beat Club Brugge in their final league phase match just to reach the knockout stages, and it means they must now go up against the defending champions.

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There have been signs that City could turn their season around, but they collapsed to defeat against PSG last month and were then hammered 5-1 by Arsenal, emphasising the vulnerabilities that are still very much there. Kevin De Bruyne and John Stones both start for the hosts tonight, while Jack Grealish gets the nod on the left wing.

Real’s Champions League campaign has not been hugely convincing either, as they finished 11th in the standings. Carlo Ancelotti’s side, who sit top of LaLiga, so often to come to life at this stage of the season, though, and they will be eyeing a statement result to take back to Madrid for the second leg. Follow all the action with Standard Sport’s LIVE blog below!

Live updates

57 seconds ago

One match down...

We’ve had our first match in the new Champions League knockout play-off round.

PSG have beaten Brest 3-0 away from home - not too much of a stretch to say they are pretty much in the last-16 now.

The small matters of Liverpool or Barcelona waiting for the winner of that tie.

REUTERS

6 minutes ago

Tough route to final!

The winner of this tie will face either Atletico Madrid or Bayer Leverkusen in the last-16.

Beyond that, it will be a quarter-final clash against one of Arsenal, AC Milan, Juventus or PSV.

Real Madrid or Man City are going to have work very hard to win the Champions League this season!

17 minutes ago

Not a lot of sympathy...

It would be fair to say Pep Guardiola is not feeling hugely sorry for Carlo Ancelotti, who said Real Madrid have an “emergency in defence”.

30 minutes ago

In the building!

The Real Madrid players have arrived at the Etihad...

40 minutes ago

Pre-match thoughts from De Bruyne

Kevin De Bruyne starts tonight and he has been speaking ahead of kick-off.

He’s told that no player has been involved in more goals against Real Madrid in this competition than him.

“I just try to do my job - if I can contribute helping, scoring and all this stuff, it’s a good thing,” De Bruyne says.

“We need to have a good performance first and then hopefully we can do the rest.”

50 minutes ago

Guardiola shuffles pack

Interesting team selection from Pep Guardiola.

A lot of centre-backs in the team - looks like it will be John Stones as the holding midfielder, with Manuel Akanji at right-back up against Vinicius Jr. Best of luck.

Jack Grealish and Savinho get the nod out wide, Kevin De Bruyne is fit to start and Erling Haaland returns after his FA Cup rest.

Getty Images

59 minutes ago

Man City team news

Starting XI: Ederson, Akanji, Dias, Ake, Gvardiol, Stones, De Bruyne, Bernardo, Savinho, Grealish, Haaland

Subs: Ortega, Marmoush, Kovacic, Doku, Nico, Gundogan, Nunes, Khusanov, Foden, O'Reilly, Lewis, McAtee

1 hour ago

Guardiola: Man City players have something special

Pep Guardiola admitted Man City are still not at their “stable” best this season, but urged his players to produce something special against Real Madrid tonight.

“We are where we are, and I know perfectly but the team has something special and hopefully tomorrow we can prove it,” Guardiola said.

“I will not deny how I trust with the players who gave us that incredible decade, winning a lot of things and playing a high standard, I know what we are capable of.

“We play the second game away because we were not good in the group stage - when you finish 22nd you cannot ask for any favours.

“In football you have to deserve it - we do not deserve it. We were not even close. That’s why when the draw was either Bayern Munich or Real Madrid, I thought that is what we deserve.

We have not been stable this season. We achieved Trebles and quadruples and we see how difficult it is. It is because we were a machine. Doesn’t matter what happened, we were there.

“We have many cases in the nine years I have been here where we suffer but always, we came back.”