PREDICTED LINEUP - MANCHESTER CITY VS REAL MADRID - HAALAND AND BERNARDO START, MAHREZ ON THE BENCH

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Tomorrow, Manchester City will play arguably the biggest UEFA Champions League game that has ever been played at the Etihad Stadium, as they face Carlo Ancelotti's Real Madrid in the Champions League semi final.

City, coming off the back of a 3-0 victory against Everton at the weekend, thanks to goals from Erling Haaland and an Ilkay Gundogan brace, have the disadvantage of a day's less rest compared to their opponents, who had an extra day to prepare before this match, and were able to rotate players in Saturday's 1-0 win over Getafe, to keep their slim hopes of winning La Liga alive, before Barcelona sealed the title the next day.

The Blues go into the match as favourites, knowing that a win would take them through to their second ever Champions League final in Istanbul, where they'd face either AC Milan or Inter Milan in the final.

But when it comes to Real Madrid, presumptions can never be made, as the reigning champions of Europe have an uncanny knack to make an unlikely comeback from any position, as shown in the semi final second leg last year, when two late goals by Rodrygo and a Karim Benzema penalty in extra time broke City hearts.

If Los Blancos are to be victorious again this season, they'll have won the UEFA Champions League for an historic 15th time, cementing their position as the biggest club in the world.

However, they certainly didn't outplay City at the Bernabeu, with a 1-1 draw probably being a fair result, after sublime goals from Vinicius Junior for Real Madrid and Kevin de Bruyne for City.

In my opinion, City played a slightly more conservative game than they usually would in the reverse fixture last Tuesday, prioritising possession and control limiting Real Madrid counter attacks.

Jack Grealish, one of the players who played within himself for parts of last week's game, claimed after the game that City were aiming for the win in Madrid, but, ultimately, Guardiola will be the happier of the two managers with the result.

If City play an open, aggressive, attacking game against Madrid, as they did against Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool at the Etihad Stadium earlier this season, then they'll cause Real Madrid many more issues than they did in their last meeting.

Now that the Blues have Erling Haaland in their ranks, they are able to create more goal scoring chances on the counter attack, and missing chances shouldn't be the same issue it was last year.

However, Pep Guardiola did confirm in his press conference that influential defender, and contender for the Etihad Player of the Season, in the same company as De Bruyne and Haaland, Nathan Ake will unfortunately miss out on this match, due to injury.

Ake will be a huge blow for City, due to his consistently excellent performances all season. It's an even bigger blow that Eder Militao - who missed the first leg due to suspension - and Eduardo Camavinga - who was replaced with an injury in Real Madrid's match at the weekend - are both set to be available.

The luck that Real Madrid seemed to have had with serious looking injuries actually being minor has been very frustrating from a City fan's perspective. Considering Luka Modric's recent miraculous recovery from a hamstring injury in just over a week to play in the first leg, from what is usually a two week long absence at least, is improbable and annoying, no doubt, especially considering the former Tottenham Hotspur player is now 37 years young.

But City are good enough to beat Real Madrid at full strength, and they don't need injuries for Madrid as an essential; they're just a way of making an incredibly tough game slightly easier.

This is arguably the biggest game at the Etihad Stadium, with fans in the stadium, since the 93:20 match against Queens Park Rangers just over 11 years ago, where a last gasp goal from club legend Sergio Aguero clinched City's first ever Premier League title.

The atmosphere should be electric; I know there were many City fans who were unable to get tickets for the match, but, nevertheless, there will still be a full house, with fans from all over the world offering passionate support, and looking to witness a moment in history.

Here is our predicted line up for the first game in what could be one of the greatest weeks of all time for any football club!:

The ever reliable Ederson will start between the sticks for City, where he'll hope to show why he's one of the best goalkeepers in the world.

Starting at right back, Kyle Walker will look to have as good a performance as he did in the first leg up against Vinicius Junior. If he does, then City will have an excellent chance to progress. He'll be joined in defence by John Stones - who will drop into midfield when City have the ball - and Ruben Dias, who will look to show his excellent teamwork and leadership skills in leading City through this game. In Ake's absence, we should see the versatile and brilliant Manuel Akanji start at left back, where, according to rumours, he will be up against Federico Valverde, who should be less of a pacey and skilful threat to the Swiss international than Rodrygo.

Rodri will start at the base of midfield, unless Guardiola decides to go all "2021 Champions League final" mode and start without a defensive midfielder, which I'm sure we're all preying he won't. Ahead of him should be Ilkay Gundogan as the left sided 8, who is playing "like prime Zidane" according to teammate Kyle Walker, and, as the right sided 8 will be Kevin de Bruyne, fresh off the back of a rest at the weekend.

Despite an under par performance on the right wing in the first leg, we expect to see Bernardo Silva start on the right wing, as I struggle to believe that Pep Guardiola would want to leave him out of the starting 11 completely. On the left wing, we should see Jack Grealish, who was rested at the weekend, as he has had a fine campaign for City. We could well see Phil Foden start, however, most likely in place of Bernardo, as City look to come out of the blocks fast, with Bernardo coming on towards the end of the game to shore things up if City are winning.

Erling Haaland will start as the centre forward, despite being kept quiet by Antonio Rudiger in the first leg, as he'll be hungry to add to his remarkable 52 goals in all competitions this season.

On the bench, we will see the rest of City's available squad, which equates to Stefan Ortega-Moreno, Scott Carson, Rico Lewis, Aymeric Laporte, Sergio Gomez, Kalvin Phillips, Maximo Perrone, Cole Palmer, Riyad Mahrez, Phil Foden and Julian Alvarez.

CMON CITY!!!