{"id":339509,"date":"2025-12-10T13:45:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T13:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/339509\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T13:45:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T13:45:09","slug":"predicted-man-city-xi-in-champions-league-vs-real-madrid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/339509\/","title":{"rendered":"Predicted Man City XI in Champions League vs Real Madrid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/manchester-city-v-sunderland-premier-league-1-scaled.jpg\" class=\"attachment- size- wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Manchester City are set to renew continental rivalries with Real Madrid as they lock horns in a blockbuster Champions League showdown at Santiago Bernabeu later tonight.<\/p>\n<p>City\u2019s heavily rotated side was picked apart by Bayer Leverkusen, with Alejandro Grimaldo and Patrik Schick punishing manager Pep Guardiola\u2019s sweeping changes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Guardiola admitted afterwards that making ten alterations may have pushed the limits, a gamble that now leaves his team outside the automatic qualification spots.<\/p>\n<p>City sit 12th with 10 points from a possible 15, level with Borussia Dortmund and Chelsea but behind both sides on goal difference.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>With several teams breathing down their necks, tonight\u2019s results could tighten the squeeze even further.<\/p>\n<p>After falling prey to Leverkusen, City returned to domestic duties with a vengeance, swatting aside Leeds United, Fulham and Sunderland.<\/p>\n<p>They must now carry that form into the Champions League as they prepare to face a familiar foe in Madrid.<\/p>\n<p>City know all too well the danger posed by the Spanish giants, who knocked them out 6-3 on aggregate last season.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The fact that they\u2019ve won just one of their last seven trips to the Bernabeu would also cause more headaches for Guardiola.<\/p>\n<p>How Man City could line up<\/p>\n<p>Guardiola has already berated himself for making a host of changes that ended with a 2-0 home defeat against German opposition.<\/p>\n<p>It wouldn\u2019t be surprising if the Spanish tactician decides to <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsview.co.uk\/2025\/12\/guardiola-refuses-to-get-carried-away-with-title-race-talks-as-man-city-thrash-sunderland-3-0-to-close-the-gap-on-arsenal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">stick with the team that thrashed Sunderland 3-0 over the weekend<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>However, there could be at least one change to the starting XI, but it shouldn\u2019t affect Gianluigi Donnarumma\u2019s position between the sticks.<\/p>\n<p>A trusted backline of Nico O\u2019Reilly, Josko Gvardiol, Ruben Dias and Matheus Nunes should also remain unchanged, especially after keeping a clean sheet over the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Nico Gonzalez should continue in Rodri\u2019s place while Tijjani Reijnders comes in for Bernardo Silva.<\/p>\n<p>The 27-year-old should line up alongside Jeremy Doku, Phil Foden and Rayan Cherki. The latter will be making his first start for City in the competition.<\/p>\n<p>Erling Braut Haaland will lead the line.<\/p>\n<p>Predicted Man City starting XI<\/p>\n<p>(4-1-4-1): Donnarumma; Nunes, Dias, Gvardiol, O\u2019Reilly; Gonzalez; Cherki, Reijnders, Foden, Doku; Haaland.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/SV_Logo_250x50_PNG.png\" class=\"lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 250px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 250\/50;\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manchester City are set to renew continental rivalries with Real Madrid as they lock horns in a blockbuster&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-339509","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}