Manchester City are a complete team now especially thanks to Erling Haaland. He was the missing piece of the puzzle. He is really unstoppable now and I don't see any Real Madrid defender who can really stop him either. It is all up to Courtois' performance against him. But still I'm expecting Manchester City to reach the finale with the help of Haaland.
Imo Manchester City have always been a complete team, they have just been somewhat unlucky in the CL knockout stages even after scoring quite a lot of goals, last season against Real Madrid in the CL SF City scored five times, but defensive errors and lack of concentration cost them so much, and they ended up conceding 6 goals, thus they were eliminated. What i think is that City are now a more matured team in the CL, and that's all round, i mean in every department, not just because of Erling Haaland, the team now knows when to sit back and defend and when to go on all attack, and we saw that side of City against Bayern Munich in the QF 2nd leg. City are going to go through to the final, they are better prepared for Real Madrid and they are beginning to accrue the well needed experience to win games such as this.I can agree with you about a point that Manchester City were still really strong last season despite not having Erling Haaland. Especially in Etihad there was a goal duel between them and Real Madrid as far as I can remember - it finished by 4-3. The problem was in Santiago Bernabeu. In fact they got ahead first then but Real Madrid's comeback in only two minutes in the last moments was amazing and this was the turning point for Real Madrid at the same time.
I don't say it was totally by luck of course as Real Madrid also made a big effort. However their luck was also making an extra contribution in the second leg. This time I think that Real Madrid wouldn't be able to repeat this scenario in a similar situation as it is an a little rare incident in football. Besides Manchester City can make sure of it thanks to Haaland's beast mode also.
Now, I ain't saying it was sheer luck—Real Madrid flexed their muscles big time. As for this season, I reckon Manchester City's got a solid shot at outplaying Real Madrid, especially with Haaland stirring things up. That dude's a force of nature, capable of single-handedly snatching victory.
Sure, football's a fickle mistress, and we can't dismiss the potential fireworks from Vini Jr, Benzema, or Rodrygo. But overall, Manchester City's gearing up for the Champions League like never before, and it's high time they bagged that maiden title. Let's just kick back, chill, and soak in the match—it's gonna be a banger