Match Highlights
With a minimum and total 1-0 win Real Madrid booked another Champions league final, where as three years ago, Atletico Madrid will be on the other side. Hero for Real Madrid was the Welsh attacker, Gareth Bale who’s shot Fernando reflected and Hart was helpless. Minimum win, but enough to knock out the Citizens who haven’t had any real chances.
Team Lineups
SUBS: Sterling, Caballero, Bony, Delph, Mangala, Iheanacho.
MANCHESTER CITY (4-2-3-1): Hart; Sagna, Kompany, Otamendi, Clichy; Fernando, Fernandinho; Navas, Toure, De Bruyne; Aguero.
SUBS: Varane, James, Casilla, Kovacic, Lucas, Danilo, Mayoral.
REAL MADRID (4-3-3): Navas; Carvajal, Pepe, Ramos, Marcelo; Modric, Kroos, Isco; Bale, Ronaldo, Jese.
Pre Match Video
Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said on Tuesday (3rd May) that Cristiano Ronaldo was “one hundred per cent” and ready to play in the second leg of their UEFA Champions League semi-final against Manchester City on Wednesday (4th May), while he praised the “fantastic job” done by Claudio Ranieri to lead Leicester City to their first English Premier League title.
Real Madrid coach (on Cristiano Ronaldo’s fitness)
“Cristiano is fine. He’s one hundred per cent, that’s why he has trained this morning and he will be there tomorrow. What Karim (Benzema) and Casi (Casemiro) have is something different. It’s different because Karim had an MRI today and there was still a black dot there, so we don’t want to take any risks. Regarding Casi, it’s not an injury but he’s had a little oedema and we don’t want to take risks either. We have enough players.”
(on Manchester City)
“We respect the rival as usual, because this rival has very good players, especially in attack, but we are going to focus on our football, also as usual. I want to say this match is not going to be like the second leg against Wolfsburg, that’s for sure. We can’t think we’re going to score two or three goals in 15 minutes. That doesn’t exist in football. It’s another match, different, completely different, but we’re ready. We know we’re going to suffer from minute one to minute 90, or beyond. What’s important is that we’re all ready for that.”
(on Leicester City winning the English Premier League title)
“There are no miracles in football. They have played a fantastic season, their coach (Claudio) Ranieri has done a fantastic job and I’m happy for him and for all the players. This is the first time they’re champions and what they’ve done throughout the whole season is just admirable. There’s no miracle, it’s something fair that this team deserves.”
Manchester City held a news conference on Tuesday (3rd May) ahead of their Champions League semi-final second leg against Real Madrid.
Manuel Pellegrini, Manchester City manager:
(asked if the general opinion that Real Madrid are superior affects the team and if we can expect a surprise):
“I think our motivation must not be linked to that. I think our motivation must be to try to reach a final. We never did it before, to play against a great team as Real Madrid in a beautiful stadium. I think those kind of things, for me at least, motivate more than speculation about who is the best team or who will reach the final. I think that everyone must trust their team. We trust ours a lot and I hope we can demonstrate it tomorrow in the 90 minutes.”
“Cristiano (Ronaldo) will always be a different player. He scores a lot of goals. You must see the amount of goals that he has scored in the six years he’s been playing here in Madrid. But I don’t think that Real Madrid is just Cristiano. If he doesn’t play they have other different options. The most important thing is to have our mind thinking that we must work as a team in defending and attacking, not against Cristiano, This is against Real Madrid.”
