Revealed: Why Erling Haaland is not starting for Manchester City against Real Madrid tonight

Pep Guardiola has left Erling Haaland out of his Manchester City starting line-up against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday night.

Manchester City travel to the Spanish capital knowing that they must win by a margin of two goals in order to secure progression into the last-16 stage of the UEFA Champions League and overturn the deficit from the first-leg last week.

Erling Haaland had notched a brace either side of the half-time interval against Los Blancos, regaining City’s lead from the penalty spot after Kylian Mbappe had equalised, only for Guardiola’s defence to squander the advantage.

Quick-fire goals from Brahim Diaz and Jude Bellingham in the final exchanges of the Etihad Stadium contest meant Real Madrid would come away from the north-west of England with a 3-2 lead heading into this week’s meeting.

Pep Guardiola said before the contest that Manchester City would have to execute a perfect game plan in order to proceed into the next round and defeat Real Madrid by two goals, and fitness problems in the lead-up to the match will not have helped his cause.

According to the information of ‘FPLMaineRoad’ on X prior to the official release of team news in the UEFA Champions League, Erling Haaland was left out of the starting line-up owing to the knee injury he picked up during the final moments of the 4-0 win over Newcastle.

Now, speaking to television broadcasters from the Spanish capital and the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday night, Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola admitted that Erling Haaland made him aware of his feeling on his fitness as late as Wednesday morning.

“Not close enough,” Guardiola said of Haaland’s fitness for the contest. “(He) Trained a little bit yesterday but spoke this morning and said he doesn’t feel good so we choose another one,” he continued.

Pep Guardiola will be glad to see three returning names to his Manchester City squad this week though, with Ruben Dias thrust straight back into the starting line-up and adopting the captaincy after his absence from the weekend’s win over Newcastle.

Nathan Ake and Jack Grealish only make the substitutes bench however, having both started the first-leg clash against Real Madrid last week but sustaining injury issues across the course of the 90 minutes.

Omar Marmoush leads the line for Manchester City in the absence of Erling Haaland and the Egyptian international will be full of confidence after his hat-trick heroics against Newcastle on Saturday afternoon.