By Federico Leiva, CNN in Spanish
Real Madrid and Manchester City will star this Wednesday in the highlight of the sixth date of the League Phase of the 2025/2026 Champions League. It will be a game with more than just three points at stake at the Santiago Bernabéu.
On the one hand, it is always interesting to see Pep Guardiola facing Merengue, due to his deep identification with FC Barcelona and the thousand battles he fought against those in white as a strategist for the culé, Bayern Munich and also the Citizens. There are 27 confrontations between the coach and the team from the Spanish capital, with a favorable balance: 13 wins, six draws and eight losses. However, since leaving Catalan soil the record is in the red: four wins, two draws and six losses.
On the other hand, the opposing bench may attract more attention this time. Xabi Alonso is going through his worst moment since he arrived at the White House of football. The home defeat against Celta de Vigo on Sunday left them four points behind their biggest rival and leader of LaLiga, but the worst thing was the new setback that was evident in the performance and the lack of control that their players showed on the field of play, with three sent off, one of them being on the substitute bench.
The latest news could not be worse for the whites’ strategist, since the team’s star, Kylian Mbappé, is a doubt for this game due to muscle discomfort that prevented him from training normally this Tuesday. The list of casualties for the Madridistas is long: the Frenchman is joined by Éder Militao, David Alaba, Ferland Mendy, Dani Carvajal, Dean Huijsen, Eduardo Camavinga and Trent Alexander-Arnold.
It will be a key duel for both teams, because they have already lost points along the way and a defeat this Wednesday could end up complicating their plans to qualify directly for the round of 16 of the competition. Both know very well the need to enter the best eight: last year they were below and had to go head to head for a place among the best 16 of the tournament, an instance where Madrid ended up winning.
City seems more complicated, at least from a numerical point of view. The defeat on matchday 5 at home to Bayer Leverkusen was not in anyone’s plans, and now the Citizens are forced to make up the points away from home. The good news is that a win at the Bernabéu will put them above Real Madrid in the table, with the classification on track, because their last two games will be against Bodo/Glimt and Galatasaray.
Merengue’s path looks much stormier. They could finish this day outside the top eight if they lose to City, and to make matters worse they still have a difficult match against Monaco at home and a visit on the last day against Benfica. The three points this Wednesday are worth gold, both for the questioned Xabi Alonso and for Real Madrid.
Real Madrid: Thhibaut courtois; Fede Valverde, Raúl Asencio, Antonio üdigger, Álvaro races; Aurelien tchouameni, Dani Ceballos, Güler, Jude Bellingham; viicicius jr. Y KYLIAN MBAPPE Dance of Garcia García.
Manchester City: Gian toy Donna drum; Matheus Nunes, the Red Dias, Josko Gvardiol, Nico O’Reilly; Nico González, Bernardo Silva, Tijani Reijnders; Phil Fenden, Jéremy Doku y Erling Haaland.
- 3 p.m. from Miami.
- 3 pm Bogotá.
- 2 pm Mexico City.
- 5 pm Buenos Aires.
- 9 pm Madrid.
United States: Paramount+ and DAZN.
México: FOX Sports.
Argentina: FOX Sports y Disney+.
Colombia: ESPN and Disney+.
Spain: M+ Movistar Champions League, Movistar+, Orange Fútbol and LaLiga TV Bar.
From 1st to 8th they qualify directly to the round of 16.
From 9th to 24th they will play a playoff series to qualify for the round of 16.
From 25th to 36th are eliminated.
The-CNN-Wire
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