Champions League: Man City & Real Madrid fighting for their lives
Real Madrid’s path to this unexpected knockout isn’t as dangerous as City, but it doesn’t have its dramatic moments.
Three losses in the group stage make them a game against a team they usually expect to play in the latter stage.
It won’t escape anyone’s attention – especially Manchester City – despite sitting at the top of La Liga, the team has shorted their teams when facing the main side at home or abroad this season.
Defensively, it was a massacre, a serious ligament injury to major players like Dani Carvajal and Eder Militao, a long-term David Alaba The issue and the long absence of Antonio Rudiger.
But the defensive problem is really just the tip of the iceberg – because coach Carlo Ancelotti knows better than anyone else.
They entered the game with the top three of JR, Rodrygo and Kylian Mbappe plus Jude Bellingham.
They have accumulated 59 goals this season, but Ancelotti’s trouble is his superstar – Bellingham separate – not always making the necessary shifts on defense.
Real Madrid’s crafty bosses saw potential problems at the start of the season and knew that unless they were more committed to their career, it would be a long season.
The absence of Toni Kroos makes their control of the game more difficult without replacing the real pain of a retired midfielder.
None of the money they spent replaced Cruise, but on Mbappe and other young, precocious talents.
They also spent a lot of money on rebuilding the stadium, and neighbors’ complaints about noise meant that the planned concerts at the new venue had been cancelled by local licensing authorities.
To say that this is the club’s “good money-making man” and hasn’t even begun to describe the situation. This is a big financial blow to reality.
