Former football player Wayne Rooney, who played for Manchester United, Everton, Derby County, and the England national team, retired at the age of 35 after a successful career. He now contributes to the media by analyzing the current football situation in English teams. In his latest column for The Times, Rooney previewed Manchester City’s upcoming game against Real Madrid, set to take place on Tuesday. Despite his connections to the red half of Manchester, Rooney reached a rather blunt conclusion.
Rooney stated that Manchester City will not only beat Real Madrid in the semi-final of the Champions League, but they are going to destroy them. The former player acknowledged Real Madrid’s record, but he made it clear that his favorite to go through to the final is City. For Rooney, the key factor in this tie is Erling Haaland, who has already broken the Premier League goal-scoring record in his first season.
According to Rooney, last season at the Bernabeu, City had five crazy minutes that lost them the tie. With Haaland, that would not have happened. Real Madrid could not have played the same way. In both games, they had periods where they took the ball away from City, and they were able to do that because City had no real counter-attacking threat. Rooney wonders how Real Madrid can stop Haaland over the two-legged tie.
Rooney believes City is on another level, and from the start of the season, he felt that this would be the campaign where Pep Guardiola would finally conquer Europe with City. The football his team is playing in recent months and the way they are peaking at the right time has only reaffirmed that thought. Rooney acknowledges that you can never rule out a team with Real Madrid’s experience and history, but he would not bet on them.
The former United forward thinks that the biggest change is Erling Haaland, who he describes as a great competitor who likes one-on-one play. With Eder Militao unavailable for Carlo Ancelotti for the first leg through suspension, all signs point to Antonio Rudiger being tasked with dealing with the Norwegian striker.
