Manchester City against Real Madrid certainly looks like a blockbuster, with the team that has dominated English football over the last decade going up against the club that has enjoyed unprecedented domination in the Champions League.
A semi-final that feels like a final, with the victors of this two-legged tie already taking the bill of heavy favourites against whichever Milan club makes it out of the other tie left in the competition. And if the match is anything like it was last year, when Pep Guardiola's side thought they had done enough only for another truly remarkable comeback at the Bernabeu, everyone will be itching for more encores.
It is hard to see more battles between City and Real not happening in the coming years. The tie may on the one hand represent one of the biggest clubs in the world standing defiantly in the way of the biggest modern upstart to the traditional footballing establishment, yet in reality the Blues are already well and truly part of the elite they once envied.
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City have overtaken every other club in Europe to sit as number one in UEFA's co-efficient rankings, and their road to European glory is more and more taking on a feel of when rather than if. Of course, they are still at least decades away from matching the 14 trophies won by masters of the competition Real, but they are heavyweight enough to be sparring with the La Liga giants on an annual basis whether they meet on the pitch or not.
Last year it was City who could claim victory in the transfer market having won the race to sign shooting superstar Erling Haaland, while this time Real looked to have claimed the bragging rights thanks to Jude Bellingham, the Dortmund superstar that is set to choose Spain over England. As long as the clubs remain as successful, there will be more transfer tussles to come.
And even if some fans still cannot truly believe they are really here the club are getting more and more used to sitting at the same table as clubs such as Real. The more they mix with superclubs, the more they learn the tricks and trades of what makes one.
Where the sight of Raheem Sterling holding up a Real Madrid scarf as part of his feature interview with a big Madrid sports newspaper ahead of their Champions League tie in 2020 raised eyebrows in Manchester, City are now less bothered by the noise that always accompanies their tangles with Real. Recent media reports carrying the inaccurate-yet-predictable boast about Bellingham rejecting a superior financial offer from the Etihad have not generated the concerns they once would have done.
Part of that is down to Haaland. Beating Real and other clubs to the Norwegian forward was a sensational coup for City and one that serves as proof that their sporting project is attractive to the best talent in the game, but there has also been so much written about him and his future since he agreed a five-year deal in Manchester that it is impossible to respond to every claim.
For all the articles linking him with a move to Real, it will not have escaped the attention of the meticulous Team Haaland that this semi-final was announced in one Madrid daily with a full-sized picture of their player and accompanying headline: The Ogre is Coming. All pleasantries are seemingly suspended when there is another Champions League trophy to be won.
City and Haaland will not mind the characterisation one bit if they can monster Real in Madrid and claim the advantage for the second leg. For all the drama and narrative that this tie will be portrayed as though, their meetings with the biggest club in Europe increasingly feel like business as usual.
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