Real Madrid vs Manchester City - Acid Test Awaits

Manchester City face an acid test as to how far they have progressed as a club since the takeover of Sheikh Mansour tonight. The "noisy neighbours" of Manchester find themselves competing against one of the greatest sides in world football at one of the finest stadiums in the land as City take on the might of Spanish Champions Real Madrid. It isn't the first time they have been in this competition, of course. Last year they found themselves in what was then dubbed "the Group of Death", containing Bayern Munich, Villa Real and Napoli, and were dumped out of the competition and into the Europa League. Since then though they have won the Premier League and with that added a wealth of experience under their belts. There is now a sense of purpose for City - going into the Champions League as England's flagship team shows that they have a certain duty to perform when competing against the global superpowers of Europe. So much so, that City manager Roberto Mancini boisterously stated:

€œOur mentality is not to go there - to Madrid or anywhere - for a draw, or to lose. We want to win always."

Such sentiments were echoed by Alexandar Kolorov, who in spite of being aware of the menace posed by Cristiano Ronaldo, who plundered an eye-bulging 60 goals last season, insists the English Champions should hold no fear.

"Ronaldo is something different. Everyone knows about him, there's nothing much more that you can say about him. "He's a special player - with Messi he is the best player in the world. So to play against someone like that will be a big test. He played for Man United too so he will want to score against us. "But I'll be confident because City can go to Madrid with confidence. It should be a great night for the club. We are the champions of England and they will know it will not be an easy night for them as well. Everyone at Man City will look forward to going there."

It is again going to be difficult for City in this competition though, as they find themselves staring at yet another "Group of Death". This time, along with Real Madrid, Roberto Mancini and his men have to navigate a way around Dutch Champions Ajax and German Champions Borussia Dortmund. Whether or not they can come through this group and qualify for the knock out stages of the competition for the first time in their history will provide us with a measuring stick for how far City have progressed since the days of finishing mid-table in the Premier League. Despite all the money that has been lavished on the club in bringing in star studded players to make up what is one of the most expensively assembled squads in world football, City still have their detractors who criticise them for only winning the League title last season on goal difference against one of the poorer Man United teams of Sir Alex Ferguson's tenure. They have never quite been able to step out from the looming shadow of Old Trafford. Beat Real Madrid tonight though, and it will be difficult to dispute that the Blue Moon is indeed rising.