Real Madrid: 3 key battles to watch at Manchester City

Casemiro vs. Manchester City’s midfield

The heart of Manchester City’s entire team lies in Pep Guardiola’s technical, hard-working midfield. Rodri is the man in the middle as the glue guy, but the star of the show is undoubtedly Kevin de Bruyne, who has been far and away the best midfielder in European football this season. (Apologies to Toni Kroos, but KDB has him beat this year!)

De Bruyne isn’t the only danger man, of course. Ilkay Gundogan is an intelligent, technical midfielder who can score goals and is one of the best creators in the Premier League. But when it comes to creating chances and the technical aspects of midfield play, KDB cannot be topped. The man had 20 assists in the 2019-2020 Premier League season!

Casemiro had a rough night when Real Madrid faced Manchester City in the first leg, but he’s the defensive midfield counterpart to KDB in his role, meaning that Case is the best defensive midfielder in the world by a wide margin. He was one of the best players in La Liga this season, putting together a year on the level of Lionel Messi and Karim Benzema.

There’s no doubt that Casemiro will be one of the most important players on the pitch on Friday evening. It will be up to him to help keep City’s midfield in check and to make sure KDB doesn’t get into any good scoring opportunities around the penalty box. Or Gundogan for that matter.