Who: Manchester City vs Real Madrid
What: Champions League last 16, second leg
Where: Etihad Stadium in Manchester, England
When: Tuesday at 8pm (20:00 GMT)
How to follow: We’ll have all the build-up on Al Jazeera Sport from 17:00 GMT in advance of our live text commentary stream.

Facing down the barrel of UEFA Champions League elimination, Manchester City host Real Madrid just six days after the Spanish giants administered a clinical 3-0 battering of the former Premier League champs in their opening leg of the round of 16 tie at the Bernabeu.

For Pep Guardiola’s side, it was a night to forget, and City will have it all to do in front of their home fans at Etihad Stadium in the deciding second leg if they want to avoid a repeat of last season’s knockout phase exit at the hands of Los Blancos.

Real Madrid’s hopes of progressing to the quarterfinals will be further bolstered by the likely return to action of superstar Kylian Mbappe, who will travel with the team to Manchester for Tuesday’s crucial clash.

What happened in the last-16 first-leg clash between Real and City?

Federico Valverde struck the first ⁠hat-trick of ⁠his career as Real Madrid swept aside Manchester City 3-0 in the opener, leaving the Premier League side with ⁠a daunting goal deficit before the return leg.

For the Uruguay international – in the absence of injured stars Mbappe, Jude Bellingham and Rodrygo – it was undoubtedly the standout moment of his Real career as he obliterated the short-lived City challenge with goals in the 20th, 27th and 42nd minutes.

How did Real Madrid perform in La Liga on the weekend?

Turkish international Arda Guler scored what must be a strong contender for goal of the season when he audaciously thumped a 65-metre (71-yard) screamer from his own half, and Valverde capped an excellent week with another fine strike as Real Madrid thrashed Elche 4-1 on Saturday in La Liga.

Los Blancos, who are second in the league standings, remained four points behind leaders Barcelona with 10 rounds left in the domestic season.

Did Man City rebound in the Premier League after their crushing Real Madrid loss?

Manchester City surprisingly lost ⁠ground on Premier League leaders Arsenal ⁠on Saturday as they were held to a 1-1 draw at lowly West Ham United, which left them nine points behind the leaders with a game in hand but with just eight matches remaining in the season.

Despite the disappointing result, Guardiola remained defiant, claiming City will not throw in the towel.

“It’s not over. Who said that? We didn’t lose. We will continue,” he said.

“Nine points is a lot against Arsenal, but it happened. We have the game at home, so we have to try until the end.”

Head-to-head

• City and Real have faced each other 16 times with Madrid having the advantage: six wins against five victories for Manchester.
• This is the fifth straight season that these two clubs have met in the Champions League knockout stages.
• Real Madrid knocked City out in the last 16 last season as they did in the 2024 quarterfinals and 2022 semifinals.
• City beat Madrid in the 2023 semifinal en route to lifting the Champions League trophy for the first time.

Manchester City team news

Guardiola has a mostly intact team before the return leg against Real.

Rico Lewis and defender Josko Gvardiol remain unavailable with long-term injuries.

In a boost for City, midfielder Mateo Kovacic, who had spent months on the sidelines with an injury, appeared on the substitutes bench for Saturday’s West Ham fixture and is available to play.

Predicted lineup:

Donnarumma (goalkeeper); Nunes, Dias, Guehi, Ait-Nouri; Bernardo, Rodri, O’Reilly; Semenyo, Haaland, Marmoush

Real Madrid team news

Things are looking up for Madrid with talisman Mbappe, who missed the opening leg against City with an ongoing knee injury, expected to travel to England for the knockout tie.

Real Madrid coach Alvaro Arbeloa said on Friday that he was “confident” that Mbappe will be available to face Manchester City.

“He’s getting better day by day,” Arbeloa said at a news conference. “I’m confident he’ll be on the trip to Manchester.”

Mbappe, who has scored 38 goals in 33 appearances for Real Madrid across all competitions in the 2025-2026 season, is no certainty to start at Etihad Stadium. With Madrid holding a three-goal advantage from the opener, Arbeloa is more likely to start Gonzalo Garcia up front in his place alongside Vinicius Jr and bring Mbappe off the bench.

In another piece of good news for Arbeloa, key midfielder Eduardo Camavinga, who was questionable for this match, is now available for selection.

Regular starters Bellingham and Rodrygo continue to be out as are Edit Militao, Dani Ceballos and David Alaba.

Possible starting XI:

Courtois (goalkeeper); Alexander-Arnold, Huijsen, Rudiger, Fran Garcia; Valverde, Tchouameni, Camavinga; Guler, Vinicius Jr, Gonzalo Garcia

Form Guide

Manchester City: W-D-W-L-D (all competitions, most recent result last)

Real Madrid: W-L-W-W-W

The United States and Israel continue to carry out attacks as the war with Iran enters its 17th day. Iran has retaliated by launching missile and drone barrages towards Israel and by attacking neighbouring Gulf countries.

Unlike the June 2025 strikes, which US President Donald Trump said curbed Iran’s nuclear capabilities, the current conflict has spread across at least a dozen countries, closed the Strait of Hormuz – the world’s major oil artery – and killed more than 2,300 people in the region.

Al Jazeera tracks how events have panned out over the past 16 days.

Where have attacks occurred?

The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED), an independent conflict monitor, has documented nearly 2,000 distinct events across at least 29 of Iran’s 31 provinces, with Tehran enduring the heaviest bombardments.

Each event may involve multiple attacks employing various types of weaponry, including air and drone strikes, artillery, shelling, missile attacks, remote explosives/IEDs, and “disrupted weapons use”, which measures interceptions.

The map below highlights a day-by-day breakdown of the recorded events since February 28. Click on the tabs to view each day, or click on the circles to access more information about each incident.

What has been targeted?

US and Israeli strikes have mainly targeted Iran’s missile infrastructure, nuclear and military sites.

In addition, Israel and the US have targeted Iran’s energy facilities, including oil depots in Tehran, as well as military sites on Kharg Island, a vital port for Iran’s oil exports.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at least 18 hospitals and health facilities have been hit. Iran has also reported that several schools and residential areas have been severely damaged. The deadliest single incident occurred in the city of Minab in southeastern Iran, where a strike on an elementary girls’ school killed more than 170 people, most of them schoolgirls.

Iran’s retaliatory attacks have targeted several sites across Israel as well as oil refineries, US military bases, airports and commercial shipping across the six Gulf states and beyond.

Iran has declared all US financial institutions and other tech and multinational companies in the Middle East as justified targets.

Israel has also attacked southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of the capital, Beirut. The Israeli army has issued forced evacuation notices, displacing nearly a million people from their homes.

Meanwhile, Israel continues to bombard the Gaza Strip daily, closing all crossings into the Palestinian enclave, and has stopped the flow of aid, violating the ceasefire agreement from October 10.

What weapons are being used?

The US and Israel have utilised a massive array of advanced air and sea-launched weaponry against Iran.

The US has primarily relied on long-range weapons to target central and southern Iran, while Israel has focused on northern Iran, largely employing its air force of US-made advanced jets.

According to the US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM), it has utilised more than 20 distinct weapons systems across air, sea, land, and missile defence forces.

The US has employed Tomahawk cruise missiles from navy destroyers in the Arabian Sea for attacks. It has also deployed the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) for the first time and the Low-Cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System (LUCAS), a drone modelled on Iran’s Shahed. Additionally, MQ-9 Reaper drones, as well as F/A-18 and F-35 aircraft, have been used.

In terms of air defence, the US has deployed Patriot missile systems to intercept ballistic missiles at low altitude and the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) systems intercepting missiles at higher altitudes.

Israeli forces have been intercepting missiles with the Iron Dome and the David’s Sling, designed to shoot down cruise missiles.

Iran, on the other hand, is using a trifecta of short- and medium-range ballistic missiles and one-way attack drones.

Drones have delivered volume, with cheap, mass-produced Shahed drones making it difficult for radar to spot due to their ability to fly at low altitude.

Iran’s missiles include the medium-range ballistic Shahab-3, which can travel more than 1,900km and has been deployed against Israel and used to attack energy infrastructure in the Gulf states.

Families in southern Lebanon are fleeing Israeli air attacks and have taken shelter in stadiums and schools in the capital, Beirut, as the US-Israel war on Iran has spread across the region.

More than 800,000 people, almost 15 percent of Lebanon’s population, have been forced to flee from their homes since Israel began bombarding the country after the Lebanese group Hezbollah launched rockets on Israel in response to the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Hezbollah had not attacked Israel since the November 2024 ceasefire despite near-daily violations by Israel.

The escalation has dragged Lebanon back into the wider Middle East conflict just 15 months after the last Israel-Hezbollah war.

Only a fraction of those displaced, some 132,000 people, according to Lebanese authorities, are in collective shelters. The rest are scattered elsewhere: some staying with relatives, others in half-finished buildings or with host communities, and many sleeping on the streets.

The United Nations launched a $308m flash appeal on Friday to help Lebanon cope with the fallout of the war.

Israeli attacks have killed at least 850 people and wounded more than 2,100 others in Lebanon since March 2, including 107 children and 66 women, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said on Sunday.