Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Champions League holders Real Madrid and 2023 winners Manchester City are just two games away from failing to reach the last 16 of this year’s competition.
Both finished outside the top eight in the new format’s group stage and now one of them will pay a hefty price after they were pitted against each other in the play-offs.
The first leg is at the Etihad Stadium with the second at the Bernabeu next Wednesday, giving La Liga leaders Madrid the edge in a titanic battle worthy of the final in Munich on the last Saturday in May.
City rested numerous players when they took on Leyton Orient in the FA Cup at the weekend but they had to throw John Stones, Phil Foden and Kevin De Bruyne into the mix to prevent the tie against the League One minnows going into extra-time, with the Belgium midfielder grabbing a late winner.
The victory was actually to City’s credit, even though they were pushed to their limits. As Liverpool discovered on Sunday, it can be costly trying to rest your best players when they were dumped out of the cup by Plymouth Argyle, the Championship’s bottom club.
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Pep Guardiola was honest enough to admit his expensively assembled side had to fight tooth and nail against a team of cheap signings and loanees and he would probably admit City are the underdogs against Real’s Galacticos.
Slightly surprisingly the bookies don’t see it that way as the reigning Premier League champions are 11/8 favourites to win on home soil at Betfred’s 11/8, with the Spanish club 19/10 with bet365.
To be fair, Madrid, who have injury problems at the back, have not been in vintage form either at home and abroad and were fortunate to draw 1-1 with neighbours Atletico at the weekend so the draw appeals at 14/5 with William Hill, Coral, Betfair and bet365.
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Foden is 11/4 with Ladbrokes, Coral and Sky Bet to get on the scoreboard for the hosts with Madrid star Vinicius Junior 7/1 to also score with Paddy Power, Betfair and Sky Bet.
• Nottingham Forest will not be happy they have to make their televised FA Cup fourth-round trip to Exeter on a Tuesday night with a big Premier League match at Fulham on Saturday, so manager Nuno Espírito Santo may rest a large swathe of his regular line-up.
Fortunately for him, the League One side are on a wretched run of form and a Forest win by more than one goal looks solid at 4/5 with Unibet.
• Portsmouth, Stockport, Bradford and Newport form Tuesday’s Football League acca.
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