The match between Real Madrid and Manchester City has become one of the classic matches in the UEFA Champions League. The upcoming encounter at Santiago Bernabeu will mark the 15th time the two teams have faced each other in this arena. Since the first meeting in the 2012-13 season, this is also the match with the most meetings in the history of the Champions League.
However, this confrontation brings a special interesting feature. This is the first time Pep Guardiola has competed with Xabi Alonso as coach. As a player, Alonso was an important student of Guardiola at Bayern Munich in the period 2014-2016.
The former Spanish midfielder has played 79 times under Pep Guardiola (won 58, drawn 12, lost 9). Although not a copy of his former teacher, Alonso has certainly taken on many philosophies from Guardiola - the factor that created an attractive side story for the pair that has produced a series of classic matches in recent years.
Man City traveled to Madrid in high spirits after a 3-0 victory over Sunderland, thereby shortening the 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 result put Alonso under further pressure as he was struggling to make his mark on the Spanish media, and at the same time caused Real to widen the gap to four points by leaders Barcelona.
Link to watch Real Madrid - Man City live:
https://tv360.vn/tv/tv360-plus-1?ch=2554&ev=73874&es=1&col=banner§=BANNER&page=sport
