The first leg of the UEFA Champions League semi-finals begins tonight with defending champions Real Madrid taking on English giants Manchester City at the Santiago Bernabeu. The La Liga champions put four unanswered goals past Chelsea over the two legs of their quarter-final to reach the last four while City ran out 4-1 aggregate winners over Bayern Munich. Rodrygo stepped up to the occasion with a second leg brace to hand Real Madrid a 2-0 win over the Blues proving himself to be a two goals hero yet again. He is also on record with a brace during the Copa del Rey final that saw the Los Blancos be crowned the cup champions. 

As Barcelona inch closer to wrestling the La Liga trophy out of the grasp of Real Madrid, the Los Blancos will be aiming to retain the UCL title and tonight's match will be very critical in determining if fortune still favours them as they go against one of the best teams in the world. Real Madrid have only failed to reach the final in one of the previous five seasons where they have progressed to the semis - going down to eventual winners Chelsea in the 2020-2021 campaign. Carlo Ancelotti's side enter the first leg on the back of five successive Champions League wins keeping clean sheets in each of their last three leaving no doubts over their authority in Europe. 

Pep Guardiola made his feelings perfectly clear after his captain Ilkay Gundogan smashed a late penalty against the post squandering the chances of him achieving his first-ever career hat-trick. Guardiola made it clear that Erling Haaland should have been the penalty taker and not given it out to Gundogan. Thankfully to Guardiola and company, however, the German's first-half brace had already done the damage and they still emerged victorious 2-1 over Leeds. Manchester City are now seated at the top of the Premier League table one point ahead of their challengers Arsenal with one game still in hand. 

With the FA Cup final still within their reach where Manchester United lie in waiting, Manchester City still dream of securing a treble this season. Out of City's last 16 games in all competitions, the 1-1 stalemate in Germany against Bayern Munich is the only one that they have not won. However, Pep Guardiola is at risk of setting an unwanted record of seven Champions League semi-final eliminations as a manager; his current statistic of six is the joint-most alongside Portuguese maestro Jose Mourinho. The most recent exit in the last four came at the hands of Real Madrid last year as City edged a seven-goal thriller 4-3 at the Etihad Stadium before losing 3-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu. If last year's extravaganza is anything to go by, then football lovers are in for a treat tonight as they look forward to the return fixture next week. 

(Image: SuperSport)