Real Madrid: 5 burning questions before the Champions League semifinal vs. Manchester City
By Parshva Shah
2. Will there be more injuries for both teams?
Ferland Mendy and Marcelo suffered injuries against Chelsea in the second leg. The former hadn’t recovered from his previous injury, so this relapse will cause the French left-back to be out of action for two weeks. He could possibly miss the first leg of the semi-final.
Marcelo is out for just one week, though. So we can expect him to be fit in time for the visit to Manchester.
Karim Benzema was seen in pain in extra time against Chelsea, but, fortunately, he hasn’t suffered any injury. Nacho escaped an injury too. That begs the question: will Real Madrid have a near full-strength squad for their trip to Etihad Stadium? Let’s hope not.
On the other hand, Manchester City were given injury scares in the form of Kevin De Bruyne and Kyle Walker in the Champions League quarterfinal second leg against Atlético Madrid.
Talking about Walker’s ankle twist after the second leg, Guardiola said, “He wouldn’t have remained on the pitch. He had a big twist but it is getting better. In football, these kinds of things happen but we will adapt and adjust.”
De Bruyne was on the bench against Liverpool for their FA Cup semi-final on Saturday, being unused by Guardiola. Ruben Dias, who picked up a hamstring injury against Peterborough in the FA Cup at the beginning of March, also returned to the squad against Liverpool.