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2022/23 UEFA Champions League
Semi-finals
Second leg
Manchester City v Real Madrid
Etihad Stadium
Manchester, England
Wednesday, 17 May 2023
Kick-off is at 22h00
Manchester City still have everything to play for when they host Real Madrid at the Etihad Stadium in the second leg of the
UEFA Champions League semi-finals on Wednesday, May 17.
The Citizens held the defending champions to a 1-1 draw in the first leg on Tuesday, May 9 after Kevin De Bruyne (67') cancelled out Vinicius Junior's 36th-minute opener at the Bernabeu.
The result will have given Pep Guardiola's side hope of reaching the final for only the second time in their history and they can look to last season's home tie against Los Blancos for inspiration.
City beat the Spanish giants 4-3 in a thrilling encounter at the same stage in 2021-22 before losing 3-1 after extra time in the return leg in Madrid to bow out 6-5 on aggregate.
The English champions remain unbeaten in Europe's elite club competition this term and have won all five games on home soil, conceding just twice, while scoring an impressive 20 goals.
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De Bruyne has contributed directly to four of their goals in the knockout stages, grabbing a goal and an assist in the 7-0 thrashing of RB Leipzig in the last 16, second leg before setting up Erling Haaland to open the scoring against Bayern Munich in the quarter-final, second leg. His equaliser in the Spanish capital was so sweetly struck that no goalkeeper in the world would have kept it out.
In team news, Guardiola has an almost fully-fit squad at his disposal, with just Nathan Ake (hamstring) unavailable for selection, while Carlo Ancelotti has no injuries to contend with.
Guardiola described the last-four decider in Manchester as a "final" and he intends to make a couple of tweaks after acknowledging that they struggled to bring Erling Haaland into the game last time out.
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"It's open to Manchester, it will be a final playing at home with our people and we look forward to it," the Spaniard said. "The effort was incredible. It's like a play-off now.
"We know exactly what they have done. Maybe they will adjust something, maybe not. We have to see if we can defend a little bit better in some departments and attack because [David] Alaba and [Antonio] Rudiger were so close to Erling [Haaland]. The spaces were occupied by [Federico] Valverde and [Toni] Kroos, it was not easy to find spaces for Erling.
"But we will try to adjust something maybe in the second leg to be more fluid and play with a bit more rhythm because we play at home and at home we feel comfortable with our people. We are going to try. The team that is going to win the game is going to get to the final."
Head-to-Head (Last Five Champions League Meetings)
Matches - 5
Man City - 3
Real Madrid - 1
Draws - 1
UEFA Champions League fixtures:
Tuesday, May 16
22h00: Inter Milan v AC Milan
Wednesday, May 17
22h00: Manchester City v Real Madrid
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