Manchester City and Real Madrid have to confirm that they are candidates against two accessible rivals

The round of 16 of the Champions League will start this Tuesday with the participation of the two big contenders for the title, Manchester City y Real Madridplaying the first leg in Copenhagen and Leipzig.

The European event comes at a great time for both ‘Citizens’ and the whites and it does not seem that neither Copenhagen nor RB Leipzig have the capacity to knock the last two champions out of the competition, City in 2023 and Real Madrid one year before.

Despite the plague of injuries it is suffering this season, especially in defense, the Spanish team has only lost two games this season, both against Atlético de Madrid (one in LaLiga and another in the Copa del Rey) and last weekend This week they left the league title almost sealed after beating second-placed Girona 4-0, whom they now lead by 5 points.

For the duel in Germany, the coach Carlo Ancelotti He will have to field a defense of circumstances again, with Dani Carvajal and Aurélien Tchouameni as an improvised axis, since the four center backs of the squad are injured, in addition to goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.

Even more serious: in the match against Girona, Jude Bellingham sprained left ankle and he will not be available either, so Real Madrid is left without its top scorer this season (16 goals in LaLiga and 4 in the Champions League).

But the white team can count on the great playing moment of men like Vinicius Jr, Eduardo Camavinga and Brahim Díaz to dream of moving forward in search of the 15th title in its history.

Pep’s team, for its part, has won its last 10 games played, including all competitions, and also He has recovered his scorer Erling Haaland in timeabsent for several weeks due to injury, and who scored both goals in the victory against Everton at the weekend.

These good results have catapulted Pep Guardiola’s team to second place in the Premier League standings, two points behind leader Liverpool, although with one less game that could allow them to climb to first place.

In addition to Haaland, the current European champion has the backbone of the team that won the first ‘Orejona’ in City history last season, with its constellation of stars (De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Rodri, Foden, Julián Álvarez , Ruben Dias…).

The rest of the qualifiers will be played between Wednesday and next week, in a round of 16 that will last over the next month.

Copenhague – Manchester City

Paris Saint-Germain – Real Sociedad

PSV Eindhoven – Borussia Dortmund

This is how the second leg matches of the Champions League round of 16 will be

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Real Sociedad – Paris SG

Manchester City – Copenhague

Borussia Dortmund – PSV Eindhoven