Real Madrid will be without their best playmaker when they take on Girona at the Santiago Bernabéu. Los Blancos are fresh off a dominant Champions League knockout phase playoff tie against Manchester City.

Real Madrid have won the away first leg of a European tie on 40 occasions. If Pep Guardiola wants a sense of how hard the task ahead of them is it is perhaps encapsulated in one statistic -- only on two of the previous 39 occasions have Los Merengues been eliminated from European competition.

Real Madrid advanced to the Champions League last 16 with a 3-1 victory — and a 6-3 aggregate win — against Manchester City on Wednesday night. Madrid started the game in excellent fashion, with Kylian Mbappe latching onto a long ball over the top in the fourth minute before lobbing Ederson in the City goal.