Man City's Haaland takes on Madrid's attacking trio in CL semis

Two of the best attacking teams in Europe face off in the Champions League semifinals this week with Manchester Citys recordseeking Erling Haaland going against Real Madrids redhot trio of Viniacutecius Juacutenior Rodrygo and Karim BenzemaIt will be a rematch of last years semifinal when Madrid got the better of a City team that didnt have Haaland in the squad City fell short of European success yet again while Madrid went on to win a recordextending 14th titleThe addition of Haaland could be the differencemaker for Pep Guardiolas team this time The 22yearold Norwegian scored 12 of Citys 26 goals in the Champions League this season He is five short of Cristiano Ronaldos singleseason record of 17 goals for Madrid in 201314Also ReadAfter years of turmoil Milan teams back in European eliteHaaland added a new dimension to a City attack that played most of last season without a striker Instead of focusing on always dominating possession Guardiola has been happy to use Haaland as a weapon on the counterattack at times The striker has a Premier Leaguerecord 35 goals this season and 51 in total in all competitionsMadrid will stick to the formula that has worked well in recent years with Viniacutecius Benzema and Rodrygo taking turns to lead an attack that scored 25 goals in the Champions League this season 15 of them coming from the trio They scored eight of the teams 10 goals in the knockout stage aloneLast season Viniacutecius Benzema and Rodrygo combined for all six of Madrids goals as it advanced past City 65 on aggregate in the semifinals Rodrygo scored the two late goals that took the second leg to extra time at the Santiago Bernabeu StadiumRodrygo is coming off a twogoal performance in the 21 win over Osasuna that gave Madrid the Copa del Rey title on Saturday Viniacutecius had an assist and continued to play at a top level Benzema had a hat trick in Madrids 42 win against Almeria in the previous Spanish league roundWith the Copa title secured and the league out of reach Madrid can fully focus on the matchup against CityWere preparing for a big game on Tuesday and were heading into it with our morale very high coach Carlo Ancelotti said Were going to compete and fight because were so close to another finalCity will enter the semifinals still in the middle of a tight title race in England Guardiola had to play some of his top players including Haaland and Kevin de Bruyne for the full 90 minutes in the 21 win over Leeds on SaturdayMadrid eliminated two other English clubs in the Champions League this season Liverpool in the round of 16 and Chelsea in the quarterfinals City advanced past Leipzig in the last 16 and Bayern Munich in the last eightMadrid is making its 11th semifinal appearances in 13 seasons and is trying to win its sixth title in 10 seasons City played in its first Champions League final two seasons ago losing to ChelseaThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever