Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola certainly has plenty of reasons for concern as he leads his side into the second leg of their UCL tie with Real Madrid. He has a quartet of dynamic fitness concerns in Manuel Akanji, Jack Grealish, Nathan Ake and Ruben Dias. All the while heading into the second leg of the tie trailing.
And if he’s going to turn the tide, he’ll have to do it on the road too.
UEFA Champions League Playoff Round Leg 2/2 FYIs
Real Madrid vs Manchester City
Aggregate: Madrid leads 3-2
Kickoff: Wed. Feb. 19, 8pm, Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid, Spain
Team News for Both Sides: go here
Starting XI Predictions: Manchester City Real Madrid
Google Result Probability, 90 Min: Manchester City 26% Extra Time 22% Real Madrid 52%
Team News for Both Sides
We start with Akanji, who is going to need surgery to repair his thigh injury. “Surgery on Saturday,” Guardiola said on Valentine’s Day. “8-10 weeks.”
The situation is better for Grealish, and his unspecified muscular injury issue: “Not as [serious as Akanji]. I don’t know if tomorrow he will be ready, I don’t think so. We’ll assess in the next hours.”
He could be in contention to feature here. Ditto for Nathan Ake and Ruben Dias (knocks for both).
Meanwhile the goalposts on Oscar Bobb (foot fracture), just keep on getting moved back. Not sure what is really going on there. And obviously Rodri is out for the year (cruciate ligament repair)
Shifting gears to Los Blancos, the only new situation here is Lucas Vazquez, who has a hamstring problem.
Antonio Rüdiger (thigh muscle) and David Alaba (adductor) are out indefinitely Dani Carvajal and Éder Militão remains out for the season with cruciate ligament injuries
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network, the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America and RG. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Washington Post and ESPN. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter.