Man City vs. Real Madrid: an accidental blockbuster in the Champions League playoffs

By Canadian Press on February 9, 2025.

Real Madrid against Manchester City in the Champions League is the accidental blockbuster of the new knockout playoffs round that starts Tuesday.

The past two title winners surprisingly finished mid-table in the new 36-team standings format that ended in January. The top-eight teams skipped the playoffs and went directly to the round of 16 in March.

The penalty for City and Madrid is now to meet in the extra stage inserted into the format just to enter the round of 16 that they have come to expect as their rightful place.

Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain also are wealthy and influential clubs now facing unexpected jeopardy in the two-leg playoffs on back-to-back midweeks in February.

The bonus for UEFA and broadcasters is having global attractions in action for two extra games after an expanded opening league phase. If record 15-time champion Madrid is to retain its European title, it will take playing 17 games instead of 13 last season.

Madrid eliminated Man City in the quarterfinals one year ago, and in two epic semifinal legs before lifting the trophy in 2022. Man City won their semifinals meeting decisively in 2023 on the way to its first European Cup title.

A different City

It is a different Man City in personnel and personality that Pep Guardiola will send out Tuesday in Manchester.

Star midfielder Rodri is out injured despite being included Friday in an updated squad, playmaker Kevin De Bruyne is less often fit, and the team’s pursuit of a fourth straight Premier League title has been conceded with Liverpool the likely successor. New signings Omar Marmoush in attack and Nico Gonzalez in midfield have barely settled in — with Gonzalez getting injured early into his debut in the FA Cup and now a doubt for the Madrid game.

Madrid, however, is now rolling as La Liga leader since its early-season wobbles when Kylian Mbappé took longer than expected to settle in.

The France superstar has scored nine goals in his last eight games, most recently the equalizer against Atletico Madrid in the Spanish league on Saturday. His first game in a Madrid shirt against Erling Haaland is a key narrative among many before the winner is decided Feb. 19 at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium.

French derby

Brest exceeded expectations by getting out of the league stage in its first season not just in the Champions League but in European competition. For that reason, the Brittany side might have been hoping for a rare match against a team from outside France in the playoffs — instead, it got PSG.

Indeed, the teams met just last week, with PSG winning 5-2 at Brest’s 15,000-seat Stade Francis-Le Blé. That stadium in northwestern France does not meet UEFA’s requirements so Brest has been playing its Champions League home games at Guingamp’s Stade de Roudourou, 114 kilometers (70 miles) away.

PSG hasn’t lost in any competition since Nov. 26 and starts as the big favorite to advance in a competition it has yet to win in 14 years under Qatari ownership.

Italy vs. the Netherlands

An all-France game in February was impossible in the past 20 years because UEFA separated teams from the same country until the quarterfinals draw. Now the tennis-style seeded knockout bracket does not keep national rivals apart.

There could have been Dutch and Italian derbies in the playoffs but Juventus was paired with PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord got AC Milan. All four are former European champions.

Juventus and PSV meet Tuesday for the second time in Turin this season. Juventus, which has drawn more games that it has won this season, beat PSV 3-1 in September in the first of the 144 league-phase games.

Bayern aims to be homeward bound

Bayern reached the final when the Champions League title was last decided at its stadium in Munich — in 2012, when Chelsea won on penalties after a 1-1 draw.

The seven-time European champion has a long road back to a home-field final on May 31 after placing 12th in the league standings. Still, the blow of being in the playoffs was softened by being drawn against Celtic instead of Man City.

The runaway Scottish league leader, which won the 1967 European Cup seven years before Bayern’s first title, hosts the first leg on Wednesday.

Also Wednesday, Club Brugge hosts in-form Atalanta, the Europa League title holder, which is a dangerous floater in the playoffs, and two-time champion Benfica travels to Monaco.

Borussia Dortmund, the 1997 champion and last season’s beaten finalist, is away to Sporting Lisbon on Tuesday. Both teams fired their coach in recent weeks.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

By Graham Dunbar And Steve Douglas, The Associated Press