Real Madrid face Manchester City as Mourinho question team

 

-- Jennifer Vass (Front) of Hungary leads with her horse Cordoba during the National Gallop, the biggest Hungarian equestrian festival, in Budapest, Hungary, on Sept. 16, 2012. Jennifer Vass won the race.   (Xinhua/Attila Volgyi)

MADRID, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- Real Madrid need to overcome their biggest crisis since the arrival of Jose Mourinho as coach just over two seasons ago as they prepare to kick off their Champions League campaign at home to Manchester City on Tuesday night.
The Spanish Primera Liga giants have arguably the toughest group in the competition, having been drawn to play the English, German and Dutch champions: Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund and Ajax and they kick off against big-spending City in the Santiago Bernabeu.
Real go into the match on the back of their second BBVA Primera Liga defeat of the season, 1-0 to Sevilla on Saturday night. The defeat left Madrid eight points behind FC Barcelona in the race for the title and led to Mourinho producing harsh criticism of his players, complaining that at the moment he "doesn't have a team" while questioning the will to win of much of his squad.
Mourinho has so far refused to comment about Cristiano Ronaldo, who has provoked anger among Madrid fans after saying he was "sad". Ronaldo was poor on Saturday and it will be interesting to see the reaction of the Madrid fans on his return to the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.
The Madrid coach will almost certainly make some changes to his starting 11 with Fabio Coentrao, suspended in the Primera Liga, replacing Marcelo at left back and Luka Modric coming in for Mesut Ozil in the attacking midfield role.
Karim Benzema could also be in with a chance of replacing Gonzalo Higuain in attack after Higuain missed several chances in Sevilla, although Benzema has also been struggling in front of goal in the opening matches of the season.
Manchester City will be followed by around 4,000 supporters and will have David Silva, once a Real Madrid target in their side after he was rested for their trip to play Stoke City.
Former Madrid youngster, Javi Garcia and former Barcelona midfielder, Toure Yaya will almost certainly make the line up.
City coach Roberto Mancini has been accused of being over-conservative in some away matches in Europe and it will be interesting to see if his side go for an away win or look to settle for a point.
Should the English side score an early goal the pressure on Madrid will increase and should they win, the Spanish champions will officially be in crisis.(Xinhua