City draw Real Madrid

Manchester City have been drawn up against the task of Real Madrid in this years UEFA Champions League semi-final. City will have home advantage in the first leg of the tie and will travel to the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium for the return leg.

The two teams have only previously played each other twice in Europe, this was back in 2012 as they faced each other in the group stage of the very same competition. City were beaten 3-2 at the Santiago Bernabéu, after having led twice in the game and could only manage a draw at home, which saw them fail to win a single game in the 2012/13 season in the Champions League. Now, four years later, it is time to face the Spanish Giants once again.

It is certainly safe to say that Manchester City have come a long way since that season in Europe and have improved dramatically under Manuel Pellegrini in the competition, progressing from the group stage in each of his 3 season and finish top of the tree in this years group. After being halted by Madrid's biggest rivals on two occasions in the Round of 16, City now find themselves 3 wins away from Champions League glory.

Many will have wanted to see Pellegrini go up against Pep Guardiola, but alas, this is not the case and instead we play the team who I think would be our best chance of making it to the final (dare I say it). It is no secret that Madrid's journey to the last four has been quite good, having scored 26 goals in 10 games, they certainly have an offensive flair about them, but we know they have been rarely tested against the best. When they came up against PSG they managed 1 win and 1 draw, both very close games with not much to separate them, adding to that, their calamity performance against Wolfsburg in the first leg of the quarter finals and we can see some frailties in this Madrid side. Having just beaten Paris Saint-Germain, City will not fear Madrid and should simply go in to the game with the same approach as we have done against Paris and realise that we can definitely hurt this defence of theirs.

Manchester City and Real Madrid are both very similar teams in terms of their strengths and their weaknesses; Brilliant attack, Shaky defence. It looks as if we are set up for a thrilling semi-final which may depend of moments of brilliance from the best players on the pitch. They have Ronaldo, but we have De Bruyne. There is no reason City can't put in some more excellent performances and make it to the San Siro.