Pep Guardiola confirms Man City injury blow for Real Madrid trip

Manchester City task at Real Madrid next week has been made harder following a fresh injury blow for Pep Guardiola.

The defending Premier League champions hosted Los Blancos for the fourth successive season in midweek and let a 2-1 lead slip away late on.

Goals in the closing stages from Brahim Diaz and Jude Bellingham turned the tide for the European holders to give them a 3-2 first leg victory.

Carlo Ancelotti now holds the edge in the race for the last 16 next month with Guardiola needing to produce something special in Madrid on February 19.

City have not won in their last three trips to the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu with their sole victory there coming back in 2020.

Swiss international Manuel Akanji was withdrawn at half-time in the first leg and Guardiola has now confirmed a key injury setback for the former Borussia Dortmund defender.

“He had surgery on a groin injury on Saturday. He will be out for eight to 10 weeks,” he said.

Guardiola was expected to rule Akanji out for the second game, but the length of his absence  is a major setback for one of his starting regulars, at a crunch point of the season.

The visitors now need to formulate a plan to replace Akanji with Jack Grealish also doubtful for the trip to Madrid.

Matheus Nunes could be tasked with trying to shackle Vinicius Junior which Akanji had done  a solid job of prior to his injury.

Rico Lewis is an option, but Guardiola may not want to overexpose him in this type of game, up against a player of Vinicius’ skillset.

Redeploying John Stones from his adapted defensive midfield role to right back is another avenue for Guardiola as he attempts to pull off one of the biggest results of his career as City boss to reach the next phase.