Manchester City and Real Madrid both look to be going with slightly conservative 4-3-3 setups for their massive Champions League clash, with Michael Essien getting a surprise start over Luka Modric and Mesut Özil for Los Merengues. Manchester City have handed a start to 19-year-old starlet Matija Nastasic in central defense. City could conceivably shift Javi Garcia into a back three and play some variation of 3-4-3 as well. In this respect, anyone's listed formation for City is simply a guess.
Real Madrid starting lineup (4-3-3): Iker Casillas; Marcelo, Raphael Varane, Pepe, Alvaro Arbeloa; Xabi Alonso, Sami Khedira, Michael Essien; Cristiano Ronaldo, Gonzalo Higuain, Angel di Maria
Manchester City starting lineup (4-3-3): Joe Hart; Gael Clichy, Matija Nastasic, Vincent Kompany, Maicon; Javi Garcia, Gareth Barry, Yaya Toure; David Silva, Carlos Tevez, Samir Nasri
Kickoff is at 2:45 p.m. ET, 8:45 p.m. local time from the Santiago Bernabeu. You can catch the game on FOX Soccer in the U.S., ITV 1 in the U.K. and Sportsnet regional networks in Canada.
For more on the Merengues, head over to Real Madrid blog Managing Madrid. For more on the Citizens, check out Manchester City blog Bitter and Blue. We'll have coverage of the game in our Real Madrid vs. Manchester City StoryStream. For more on the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on Twitter.