Pep Guardiola has named his starting lineup as Manchester City look to come back from three goals down against the 15-time winners of the Champions League.
Manchester City’s team which faced Real Madrid last week caused a lot of confusion, with some players taken out of their best positions, while others were removed altogether.
The result was an absolute thrashing at the hands of the home team, leaving Man City with a lot of work to do tonight.
Pep Guardiola will be hoping he has made the right calls this time around to ensure his team at least have a fighting chance in this last 16 second leg tie.
Pep Guardiola makes four changes to Man City’s starting lineup
Four new players have come into the Man City team who did not feature against West Ham at the weekend.
Ruben Dias returns in central defence, replacing Marc Guehi, while Matheus Nunes and Rayan Ait-Nouri retain their places in the team from the weekend, after missing the first leg last week.
Your City side to take on Real Madrid! 🩵
— Manchester City (@ManCity) March 17, 2026
XI | Donnarumma, Nunes, Khusanov, Dias, Ait-Nouri, Rodri, Bernardo (C), Reijnders, Cherki, Doku, Haaland
SUBS | Trafford, Stones, Ake, Marmoush, Kovacic, Nico, Guéhi, Savinho, O'Reilly, Semenyo, Foden, Lewis pic.twitter.com/o3qhdseN0Y
Tijjani Reijnders has been brought in with Nico O’Reilly making way, while Jeremy Doku and Rayan Cherki both start, in a move which sees Omar Marmoush and Antonine Semenyo drop to the bench.
Like last week’s tie, Erling Haaland is the man who will lead the line for Man City, as he looks to find his shooting boots.
Manchester City’s matchday squad in full
25. Gianluigi Donnarumma
27. Matheus Nunes
45. Abdukodir Khusanov
3. Ruben Dias
21. Rayan Ait-Nouri
16. Rodri
20. Bernardo Silva ©
4. Tijjani Reijnders
10. Rayan Cherki
11. Jeremy Doku
9. Erling Haaland
SUBS | Trafford, Stones, Ake, Marmoush, Kovacic, Nico, Guéhi, Savinho, O’Reilly, Semenyo, Foden, Lewis
Real Madrid team news
Ferderico Valverde is captaining the La Liga team, while Vinicius Jr starts in attack, as he looks to recover from his wasted penalty last week. Kylian Mbappe has been named on the bench, making a return from his injury. The rest of the squad can be viewed below.
📋✅ Our starting XI!
— Real Madrid C.F. 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@realmadriden) March 17, 2026
🆚 @ManCity pic.twitter.com/1tB8EsVNry
