CITY will aim to become only the second team in the history of this competition to lose the home leg to Real Madrid and still go through. The other one was Erik ten Hag’s Ajax six years ago.
But Pep Guardiola’s hopes of making another bit of history suffered a huge blow before kick-off with Erling Haaland declaring himself unfit to start due to the knee injury he suffered on Saturday. The Norwegian is named on the bench but it looks like City will have to do it without their main source of goals.
The Etihad giants will fail to reach the last 16 for the first time since 2013 unless they can reproduce the win they got here five years ago.
Pep Guardiola told the world's media his side arrive tonight with a "one per cent chance" of progression.
Carlo Ancelotti is having none of it.
He accepts the win in Manchester gives them an advantage but he reckons that advantage is only "small."
He said: "He doesn’t really think so.
“We don’t think we have a 99% chance. We have a small advantage and we have to take advantage of it. We have to play the same game as in the first leg, because it went well.
"But we have to take into account the difficulties. We are trying to prepare well."
Jude Bellingham WILL be available for Real Madrid for the Champions League game despite his red card against Osasuno at the weekend.
This is because suspensions from La Liga do not carry over into UEFA competitions.
The 21-year-old Bellingham was sent off for dissent during Real Madrid's 1-1 draw with Osasuna.
In an incident which has been described as a "miscommunication" by Bellingham, he told referee Jose Munuera to "f*** off", but Munuera thought he said "f*** you."
Bellingham will be banned for two La Liga games - against Girona at home andReal Betisaway.
Hello and welcome to SunSport's coverage of tonight's HUGE Champions League knockout phase second leg between Real Madrid and Manchester City.
The score from the first leg stands at 3-2 following Jude Bellingham's dramatic injury-time winner.
However City boss Pep Guardiola has admitted he lied when he said his side only have a one per cent chance of knocking out Real.
The Etihad chief wants his players to give the reigning champions a “scare” and said: “Every time I say what I think, you don’t believe me but this time you got it right - I lied.”
With a smile on his face, Guardiola added: “It’s true I said it because after the match in England, we were out.
“Always it’s very tough coming to the Bernabeu, with the history but we’ve had good moments here.
“Let’s see if we can at least scare them and we’ll see what happens.”