Manchester Metropolis’s Norwegian striker Erling Haaland attends a staff coaching session at Manchester Metropolis coaching floor in Manchester, north-west England on Could 8, 2023.
| Picture Credit score: AFP
Two of one of the best attacking groups in Europe face off within the Champions League semifinals this week, with Manchester Metropolis’s record-seeking Erling Haaland going in opposition to Actual Madrid’s red-hot trio of Vinícius Júnior, Rodrygo and Karim Benzema.
It will likely be a rematch of final 12 months’s semifinal, when Madrid bought the higher of a Metropolis staff that didn’t have Haaland within the squad. Metropolis fell in need of European success but once more, whereas Madrid went on to win a record-extending 14th title.
The addition of Haaland may very well be the difference-maker for Pep Guardiola’s staff this time. The 22-year-old Norwegian scored 12 of Metropolis’s 26 targets within the Champions League this season. He’s 5 in need of Cristiano Ronaldo’s single-season document of 17 targets for Madrid in 2013-14.
Haaland added a brand new dimension to a Metropolis assault that performed most of final season and not using a striker. As an alternative of specializing in all the time dominating possession, Guardiola has been completely satisfied to make use of Haaland as a weapon on the counterattack at instances. The striker has a Premier League-record 35 targets this season, and 51 in whole in all competitions.
Madrid will persist with the system that has labored nicely in recent times, with Vinícius, Benzema and Rodrygo taking turns to guide an assault that scored 25 targets within the Champions League this season — 15 of them coming from the trio. They scored eight of the staff’s 10 targets within the knockout stage alone.
Final season, Vinícius, Benzema and Rodrygo mixed for all six of Madrid’s targets because it superior previous Metropolis 6-5 on mixture within the semifinals. Rodrygo scored the 2 late targets that took the second leg to additional time on the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.
Rodrygo is coming off a two-goal efficiency within the 2-1 win over Osasuna that gave Madrid the Copa del Rey title on Saturday. Vinícius had an help and continued to play at a high stage. Benzema had a hat trick in Madrid’s 4-2 win in opposition to Almeria within the earlier Spanish league spherical.
With the Copa title secured and the league out of attain, Madrid can absolutely deal with the matchup in opposition to Metropolis.
“We’re getting ready for an enormous sport on Tuesday and we’re heading into it with our morale very excessive,” coach Carlo Ancelotti mentioned. “We’re going to compete and battle as a result of we’re so shut to a different ultimate.”
Metropolis will enter the semifinals nonetheless in the midst of a good title race in England. Guardiola needed to play a few of his high gamers — together with Haaland and Kevin de Bruyne — for the complete 90 minutes within the 2-1 win over Leeds on Saturday.
Madrid eradicated two different English golf equipment within the Champions League this season — Liverpool within the spherical of 16 and Chelsea within the quarterfinals. Metropolis superior previous Leipzig within the final 16 and Bayern Munich within the final eight.
Madrid is making its 11th semifinal appearances in 13 seasons and is making an attempt to win its sixth title in 10 seasons. Metropolis performed in its first Champions League ultimate two seasons in the past, dropping to Chelsea.