Overview
The match between Real Madrid and Manchester City has become a familiar match in the UEFA Champions League.
The upcoming encounter at Santiago Bernabeu will mark the 15th time the two teams have met in this arena. Since the first meeting in 2012-2013, this is the match with the most meetings in the Champions League.
However, this is the first time Pep Guardiola has faced Xabi Alonso as coach. During his playing days, Alonso was a mainstay student of Guardiola at Bayern Munich in the 2014 2016 period.
The Spanish midfielder has played 79 times under Pep (won 58, drawn 12 and lost 9). Although not a copy of his former teacher, Alonso has certainly learned a lot from Guardiola - the factor that created an interesting side story for a match that has produced many classic matches in recent years.
Man City travel to Madrid in high spirits after a 3-0 victory over Sunderland, helping them reduce their gap with Arsenal to two points in the Premier League championship race
On the other hand, Real Madrid just suffered a 0-2 defeat to Celta Vigo at the Bernabeu, in a match where they had only 9 men after losing discipline in the second half. This defeat put Alonso under further pressure amid his difficulty making his mark on the Spanish media, and caused Real to drop 4 points behind leaders of La Liga Barcelona.
In the Champions League, City are currently Ninth in the table, two points behind Real - the fifth-placed team. Both teams lost one match, but Los Blancos have 4 wins compared to City's 3. Another victory at the Bernabeu could help Madrid solidify their position in the top 8.
According to Opta's supercomputer, both teams are likely to make it to the round of 16. Madrid are expected to have a 94% chance of qualifying for the group stage, while City have a 91%.
Real entered this match with the third longest home run in the history of the Champions League Cup: 38 consecutive matches. This achievement is only behind their own 44-match streak (2011-2018) and Juventus's 45-match streak (1973-20). The team that most recently left the Bernabeu with a clean sheet in the Champions League was CSKA Moscow in December 2018 (down 0-0).
Meanwhile, The Citizens' recent Champions League form has not been really stable. Since November 2024, they have lost 6 of their 12 matches (4 wins, 2 draws). Before that, it took them 69 games - from October 2018 to October 2024 - to lose a total of 6 games in this competition (won 49, drew 14).
This great match is also the top competition between the two top strikers in Europe.
Kylian Mbappe has scored 9 goals in 5 matches in the Champions League this season - the best achievement of a Real Madrid player in his first five appearances in a season, equal to the record set by Cristiano Ronaldo in 2013-2014.
And with Erling Haaland, Man City also have their own scoring machine. Haaland has scored 20 goals in all competitions for Man City this season.
Among the players in Europe's top five leagues, only Mbappe (25 goals) and Harry Kane (28 goals) have scored more goals than the Norwegian in the 2025-2026 season. If only counting goals from live balls, Haaland is behind every Kane, who has scored 21 goals without penalty.
Head-to-head record
Man City have lost both of their last two matches against Real Madrid, including away defeats and home defeats in the play-off round last season. This number actually exceeded the total number of losses they had to suffer in the previous 11 matches against the Spanish team (4 wins, 5 draws, 2 losses).
Score prediction: Real Madrid 1-1 Man City
The match between Real Madrid and Man City takes place at 3:00 am on December 11 (Vietnam time).
