Erling Haaland starts for Manchester City in a huge blockbuster Champions League showdown with Real Madrid.
The Norwegian striker was omitted entirely from Saturday night’s squad who beat Newcastle 3-1 at St James’ Park to seal an FA Cup quarter-final place, but Pep Guardiola insisted that such an absence was pre-planned.
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The City boss said he preferred Haaland to focus on getting solid training sessions under his belt rather than just making what would only have been a late cameo on Tyneside, having returned a week previously to play 90 minutes against Nottingham Forest after missing the win at Leeds with a minor unspecified injury.
Haaland recently took to social media to show a cut to his shin suffered in a tackle from Mateo Kovacic during training, but was present during an open session that took place in front of the media on Tuesday, before City’s flight to Madrid.
City rotated at Newcastle, but the first-choice centre-back pairing of Ruben Dias and Marc Guehi are restored, with the latter - along with fellow January signing Antoine Semenyo - now eligible to play in the Champions League after missing the end of the league phase.
John Stones and Abdukodir Khusanov were the chosen defensive pairing at the weekend, and Khusanov is in at right-back ahead of Matheus Nunes.
Nico O’Reilly is at left-back, with Jeremy Doku ahead of him on the left flank.
Antoine Semenyo will play as the No10, with Savinho off the right.
Man City XI: Donnarumma; Khusanov, Dias, Guéhi, O’Reilly; Rodri, Silva; Savinho, Semenyo, Doku; Haaland
Subs: Trafford, Bettinelli, Reijnders, Stones, Ake, Marmoush, Cherki, Nico, Ait-Nouri, Nunes, Foden, Alleyne
Injured: Gvardiol, Kovacic
Time and date: 8pm GMT on Wednesday March 11, 2026
Venue: Bernabeu, Madrid
How to watch: TNT Sports
