Champions League: Real Madrid might have to deal with Sergio Aguero
By Ben Sundock
Sergio Aguero’s status has been a key talking point in the lead-up to Real Madrid’s important clash with Manchester City on August 7th. Will the important striker be available or not?
One of the biggest lingering questions heading into the UCL round of 16 second leg is the status of Argentinian striker Sergio Aguero. Aguero has been a staple of the Man City attack for nearly a decade now and was in the midst of another great season before suffering a knee injury shortly after the restart.
Aguero featured in City’s first two matches back from the pandemic suspension, but left the 5-0 win over Burnley just before halftime with a knee injury. He has not featured once since June 22, but could be included on the list of substitutes for this do or die match.
Pep has been playing some mind games with Real Madrid in recent weeks to try and throw off Zinedine Zidane’s men, and he did the same thing again when talking about Aguero.
On July 24, Guardiola hinted that Sergio would be fit when he said in a press conference, “I think against Madrid everyone will be fit, apart from (Benjamin) Mendy, who is suspended. The other ones are fit.”
These comments came a few weeks after Aguero underwent surgery in Barcelona to fix the problem and said that playing against Los Blancos on Friday would be “impossible.”
It’s also worth keeping in mind that in the first-leg of the round, Aguero not only didn’t start in the Santiago Bernabeu, but did not come on as a substitute either. David Silva, Kevin De Bruyne, and Gabriel Jesus fashioned a very different and confusing attack.
Raheem Steling was one of two subs used by Pep and was the only attacking substitution made by the Man City boss in that match.
Although Sergio Aguero is always a handful for opposing defenders, Real Madrid should not be preparing or even consider they will see the number 10 for City at any time on Friday night.
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I’m not sure what the intentions of these press conference smoke screens from Guardiola are, but let me make it very clear that they are doing little to throw Real Madrid off their game.
Momentum is on the side of the visitors, but overcoming a side with a quality manager and so much talent in every area of the pitch is incredibly difficult still.