How many times have Man City and Real Madrid faced each other in the UCL？

The two big favorites meet at the quarter final stage. They’ve met several times over the years, let’s look back at the previous encounters.

The current champions face the club who have dominated this tournament since its inception. Manchester City secured their first title after beating Inter Milan by the minimum in Istanbul last year. They go into battle with Real Madrid, the club which holds practically every record in Europe’s top club competition - the most games, the most goals, the most appearances in the final and the most titles - 14.

Carlo Ancelotti meanwhile is the coach to have overseen the most games (199) and with the most wins (114) ahead of Sir Alex Ferguson (190 and 102) and Arsène Wenger (178 and 82).

Pep Guardiola’s City at +175 remain firm favorites with the bookmakers, who have Madrid at +650 - what’s certain is that one of them will fall by the wayside, leaving the winners a clear run at the title. Both teams head into the quarter final in contrasting situations in their respective leagues - City are immersed in a tight, three-horse race with Arsenal and Liverpool in the Premier League while Madrid are coasting at the top of LaLiga - eight points clear with their two toughest tests, at home to Barcelona and away at Real Sociedad both coming after this quarter tie against City.

The Spanish giants have made 43 appearances in this competition compared to City’s 15; and while for the Mancunians, this quarter final tie will bring up their 128th and 129th games in the tournament, Madrid are inching towards the 500 mark - they will be just 14 games off that magical figure when this tie is over.

The comparisons stop short there. For all their European pedigree, Madrid would probably have preferred any other