Real Madrid vs Man City: Statz Preview + Predictions

10th December 2025

A mouth-watering clash, that we’re used to seeing in the knockout stages of the Champions League, City travel to the Bernabeu to take on Xabi Alonso’s stuttering Real Madrid side, who will be reeling after a chaotic loss to Celta Vigo on Sunday night.

Both sides can be confident of progressing beyond the Group Stage, but both will want to ensure a coveted top 8 finish and so there’s lots to play for here.

Real Madrid vs Man City: Team News

Real Madrid possible starting lineup:

Courtois; Valverde, Asencio, Rudiger, Carreras; Tchouameni, Ceballos; Guler, Bellingham, Vinicius Jr; Garcia

Manchester City possible starting lineup:

Donnarumma; Nunes, Dias, Gvardiol, O’Reilly; Gonzalez; Cherki, Reijnders, Foden, Doku; Haaland

Real Madrid vs Man City: Projections

Our projections model is predicting an extremely tight game – I can’t recall a game where our model only separates the two teams by 0.04 Goals. Naturally Haaland and Mbappe are projected to do the lions-share of attacking, albeit the French superstar is a slight doubt for this one.

In the Player Markets, we like the look of Real Madrid passes. City are allowing far more possession than in previous seasons. In their previous UCL fixture, at home, they allowed (an admittedly pass-heavy) Leverkusen 484 passes, with holding midfielder Alex Garcia racking up 84.

Here we like Aurélien Tchouaméni in the Player Passes market and we’d recommend Ladder stakes across the following.

In his last 5 appearances, Tchouaméni has pass form of 88-83-60-73-58