Why are there empty seats in Man City vs Real Madrid Champions League fixture?

• Sport
• Football
• Manchester City FC

Manchester City welcome Real Madrid to the Etihad Stadium in their Champions League round of 16 second leg tonight.

Manchester City's Etihad Stadium will have an entire tier closed off when Real Madrid visit in the Champions League tonight. The top tier of the North Stand has been closed recently due to the club expanding their stadium's capacity and improving facilities.

The top tier of the stadium, once completed, will hold 7,000 extra supporters. As this project involves extensive construction work, that area of the stadium has been closed off for the entirety of the campaign and will remain empty for the clash with Real.

In their autumn progress report, City said the top tier of the North Stand would reopen for supporters before the end of this season. However, the other new additions to the stadium - including a 401-bed hotel, fanzone, new superstore and museum - will be opening in late 2026.

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Once fans are allowed into the top tier of the North Stand, the Etihad Stadium's capacity will reach more than 60,000. For context, Arsenal's Emirates Stadium holds 60,704 and Liverpool's Anfield houses 61,276 supporters. As part of the work, the old roof on the North Stand has been removed and a new one added.

A new screen is already in place in the south-east corner of the stadium that mainly benefits those in the North Stand, while there have also been improvements to the concourses. In total, the work will cost £300m and will sit alongside the new 23,500 capacity Co-op Live as the regeneration of east Manchester continues.

City have a mountain to climb this evening. Federico Valverde's first-half hat-trick at the Bernabeu last week has left City on the verge of elimination, but the Blues have hammered Real before and will hope to do so again as they aim to keep their Champions League hopes alive.