Hello and thank you for joining The Athletic‘s live coverage of this Champions League round of 16 clash between Real Madrid and Manchester City today.
Feel like we’ve been here before? That’s because these two teams have already played each other 13 times in the 2020s and meet once against at the Bernabeu this evening.
Second in their respective leagues, a strong run in Europe would provide added incentive for both Madrid and City as we head into the business end of the season.
But only one of these recent champions will progress to the quarter-finals. In the coming hours, we’ll see if either side can get the upper hand in the tie ahead of next week’s first leg.
So without further ado, let’s get going.