Manchester City and Real Madrid arrive for the first leg of the semifinals of the European Champions League, this Tuesday, with similar problems: many doubts in the defensive sector. But the Real ones are more frightening.
Why? Basically, because the dynamics expected for the game are the usual ones when Guardiola’s teams are on the field, with Manchester City having control of the ball and the offensive initiative.
City have the doubts of Stones and Walker, in addition to the certain absence of Cancelo. Cancelo is theoretically a full-back, but the influence that Portuguese exerts is, let’s face it, much greater in construction than in marking. Guardiola still has Ruben Dias and Laporte at the back and can use midfield players or even attackers to occupy the so-called edges.
Real Madrid, on the other hand, has doubts about Casemiro, Alaba and Mendy. And then the hole is much, much lower. Especially for a team that will play away from home and will spend more time defending than attacking. Even if one or more of the guys play, they will end up acting “shot”.
In defence, Real Madrid has no substitute for any of the three. Carvajal has been improvising in the defense (he’s not doing well even on the side, which is his), Marcelo is no longer able to start a match like this and Nacho, the natural substitute for all those missing, isn’t exactly a fantastic player. For Casemiro’s position, there’s Camavinga. Until this year, Real managed to survive without the Brazilian – seven wins in eight games in which he missed the team -, but even so, you cannot deny the importance of the defensive midfielder of the selection.
There will be a lot of cucumber left for Militão to solve. But essentially it will be up to the whole team, collectively, to be able to defend against City having so many problems. Real Madrid doesn’t know how to do what Atletico Madrid did (nobody knows how to defend themselves that way), and the team will naturally look for attacks with the speed of Vinícius Jr and the great technical phase of Benzema. The possible absences of Alaba, Mendy and Casemiro would interfere too much in this too, the pass for the transition.
Manchester City, despite their own problems, have the chance to lead the tie well playing at home. “Killing” is impossible, because Real Madrid has shown throughout history and even in this Champions League that it can only be considered dead when the tie is effectively over.
