Manchester City vs Real Madrid: Champions League semi-final facts, stats and head-to-head

Manuel Pellegrini takes on his former club in City's first-ever Champions League final

Manchester City's players celebrate reaching the semi-finals (Getty)

Manchester City will play Real Madrid in their first-ever Champions League semi-final.

Having impressively eliminated Paris Saint-German in the quarter-finals, Manuel Pellegrini’s side will now have to negotiate their way past Zinedine Zidane’s Madrid if they are to reach May’s final in Milan.

In the other semi-final, Atletico Madrid take on Bayern Munich, which allows for City-bound Pep Guardiola to face his former employers in the final.

Head-to-head

The two sides have played each other just twice before – during the 2012/13 Champions League group stage.

Aleksandar Kolarov thought he’d won it with an 85^th minute strike to make it 2-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu in their first meeting, only for late goals from Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo to steal City’s thunder.

Benzema scored again at the Etihad two months later, but a Sergio Aguero penalty levelled the scores and earned the hosts a 1-1 draw. City finished bottom of the group, Real finished second behind Borussia Dortmund.

Real Madrid 3 Manchester City 2
Champions League, 18 September 2012

Manchester City 1 Real Madrid 1
Champions League, 21 November 2012

Story so far...

Figures taken from this season’s Champions League campaign

Manchester City
P10 W6 D2 L2
Group: 1^st (Juventus, Sevilla, Monchengladbach)
R16: bt Dynamo Kiev (3-1, 0-0)
QF: bt Paris Saint-Germain (2-2, 1-0)

Real Madrid
P10 W8 D1 L1
Group: 1^st (Paris Saint-Germain, Shakhtar Donetsk, Malmo)
R16: bt Roma (2-0, 2-0)
QF: bt Wolfsburg (0-2, 3-0)

Top scorers

Figures taken from this season’s Champions League campaign

Kevin De Bruyne – 8 games, 3 goals
Raheem Sterling – 8 games, 3 goals
Wilfried Bony – 5 games, 2 goals
Sergio Agüero – 7 games, 2 goals
David Silva – 7 games, 2 goals

Cristiano Ronaldo – 10 games, 16 goals
Karim Benzema – 7 games, 4 goals
Jesé – 7 games, 1 goal
James Rodríguez – 4 games, 1 goal,
Mateo Kovačić – 7 games, 1 goal