A REAL BATTLE ROYALE

Real Madrid hearts were in mouths when Eduardo Camavinga limped off against Getafe in La Liga on Saturday, ahead of the team's Champions League showdown with Manchester City.

The 20-year-old French midfielder has become a key figure for Carlo Ancelotti's reigning European champion and an injury would have been a big setback for the semifinal, second leg at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday.

Ancelotti soothed Madrid fears in his postgame news conference, saying Camavinga twisted his knee but it would heal quickly and was not a worry.

Spanish media have since reported that Camavinga will be fit, with the tie on a knife edge after the first leg finished 1-1 last Tuesday.

Camavinga played a key role in Vinicius Junior's brilliant strike in that game, charging up the pitch from leftback to help Madrid take the lead in the first half.

The Frenchman exchanged passes with Luka Modric to break free of City's press and carried the ball down to the other end, before feeding his Brazilian teammate.

However, Camavinga was also partly to blame for City's equalizer, with his pass intercepted before Kevin De Bruyne hammered home.

Playing on the left of the defense, instead of his natural central-midfield position, means Camavinga does occasionally make mistakes, but is becoming more reliable game by game — even if he would prefer to be deployed elsewhere.

"The most important thing is to help the team, and today I did that again, but no, it still isn't my position," he said after helping Madrid see off Chelsea in the Champions League quarterfinals.

Ancelotti lately in big games has simply tried to get his best 11 players onto the pitch in his lineups, which has resulted in Toni Kroos playing a holding-midfield role, and Camavinga used at leftback.

That versatility has helped him become a regular for Madrid, instead of battling with Kroos and Aurelien Tchouameni for a start in the No 6 role.

Even that is not Camavinga's best position, having operated further forward in midfield at Rennes, but Modric and Fede Valverde are holding those spots down in the key games.

Learning on the job at leftback, Camavinga's positioning has occasionally cost him, particularly in his first matches there, but he is improving quickly and does not receive a lot of defensive help from Vinicius.

Last season Camavinga was important for Madrid as it clinched a record-extending 14th Champions League title. However, he was mainly utilized off the bench in the final phases of games.

The midfielder brought energy to the team and paced it through draining extra-time periods against Chelsea and Manchester City in the semifinals.

However, as Madrid hit the home straight this season, Camavinga has become far more central to the team's success — despite playing out wide, making 54 appearances across all competitions.

Slow start

Camavinga's Madrid career moved slowly at first after arriving in the summer of 2021 in a deal worth up to 40 million euros ($44 million), despite his exciting breakthrough at Rennes.

In 2019, he became the Ligue 1 side's youngest-ever player at 16 years, four months and 27 days old; in 2020, he became France's youngest debutant since 1914.

In the Spanish capital, he has slowly gained importance but also been moved further back down the pitch. It is clear he will play a big part in Los Blancos' future, but in which role is not so certain.

As well as Tchouameni and Valverde, Madrid has also been linked with a big summer move for another midfielder in Borussia Dortmund's Jude Bellingham.

"I'm surprised how quickly he's adapted to Madrid because it's a very big club and it's not easy," said ex-Madrid midfielder Claude Makelele earlier this month. "I see him as a footballer with a great future."

Manchester City may view Camavinga as Madrid's weak link after his first-leg mistake, but he also emerged with the most tackles made and duels won, keeping Bernardo Silva quiet.

However, with the likes of Jack Grealish, Ilkay Gundogan, De Bruyne and Erling Haaland all hitting top gear now, Madrid's entire defense will need to be completely in the zone from the first whistle to the last on Wednesday to withstand the City juggernaut.

AFP