Khedira confident ahead of City clash

19 November 2012 23:19

Spanish giants Real Madrid will look to seal qualification to the UEFA Champions League knockout stage with a win against Manchester City.

Madrid scored a stoppage time winner to steal a 3-2 victory over City back in September.

The La Liga champions went 2-1 behind in that match but German international Sami Khedira believes his side are better equipped this time around.

"Dortmund showed how to handle them: playing in a compact way, fighting for every ball and trying to impose their own style," Khedira said ahead of Wednesday's match.

"We will definitely need to focus on trying to play our own way there, and impose our own attacking strengths. So I think that we have a lot of chance of winning and turning the match in our favour."

City have failed to replicate their domestic form on the European stage so far.

Conceding nine goals and taking just two points from four games, the prospect of qualification for the English Premier League Champions looks bleak.

But Khedira remains wary of the individual attacking threats of a City's front-line made spearheaded by Carlos Tevez and Mario Ballotelli.

"I think that everyone of these players have a lot of quality so we can't just focus on one of them, all four don't play at the same time.

It's very unlikely, but each one of these footballers has enormous quality and can decide a match. So all four are very good players and it doesn't matter which who plays, we will have to be very careful to try and control them. They are amongst the best in the world."

Jose Mourinho's side may not have made the perfect start to their domestic campaign, currently sitting third behind Barcelona and neighbours Atletico.

A result on Wednesday may prove to be the catalyst for a change in their fortunes.