Jude Bellingham is to get a true measure of how much progress he’s made since swapping Signal Iduna Park for the Santiago Bernabeu when Real Madrid host reigning titlists Manchester City in a heavyweight Uefa Champions League showdown tonight.
The Englishman has been a runaway hit with Los Blancos with his 21 goals to date a catalyst for Real Madrid’s eight point cushion atop Liga Santander and place in the last eight but he comes up against arguably the world’s best midfielder in City’s Rodrigo Cascante Hernandez ‘Rodri’. Pep Guardiola’s treble winners have not lost a football game in 14 months with the Spanish metronome in the side.
Santiago Bernabeu supremo Carlo Ancelotti must decide whether to deploy Bellingham in a more withdrawn role to cope with City’s possession game or play him close to front runners Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo Goes.
Thibaut Courtois, Eder Militao and David Alaba remain sidelined by injury so the task of stopping Erling Braut Haaland, Phil Foden and Kevin de Bruyne who was in rampant form as City obliterated Crystal Palace 4-2 falls with Kepa Arrizabalaga or Andriy Lunin Nacho, Dani Carvajal, Ferland Mendy and Antonio Rudiger.
Arsenal have an excellent chance to banish an aberrant record against Bayern Munich when they host the ousted Bundesliga champions at Emirates Stadium. The Bavarians have won each of their last three duels with the Gunners 5-1 but they’re up against it after losing their last two German top flight games to Borussia Dortmund (0-2) and Heidenheim (2-3).
On the other hand, Arteta’s north Londoners are in fine fettle having won nine out of their last ten outings to seize Premier League leadership from Liverpool on goal difference.
Manuel Neuer and Thomas Muller are the last surviving members of the team that obliterated Arsenal in 2017. Manager Thomas Tuchel should start both alongside Harry Kane and Leroy Sane given Muller’s record as a scorer of three of the 15 goals in the aforementioned one sided duels. Kingsley Coman should be content with a place on the bench alongside former Gunner Serge Gnarby as they have limited game time since recuperating from injury.
TODAY
Real Madrid v Manchester City,
Arsenal v Bayern Munich
WEDNESDAY
Paris Saint Germain v Barcelona,
Atletico Madrid v Borussia Dortmund