Real Madrid stars left stranded outside airport ahead of Manchester City clash

Real Madrid's stars were left stranded outside Manchester Airport for over half-an-hour on Tuesday as their mission to reach another Champions League final encountered an unexpected hitch.

Having touched down in England's north-west ahead of Wednesday night's crunch semi-final, second leg against Manchester City - with the tie on a knife-edge at 1-1 - Real's travelling party were left bemused when their bus failed to arrive on time.

Manager Carlo Ancelotti didn't look too impressed as his collection of star talents were left milling around outside arrivals for more than 40 minutes.

Karim Benzema at least saw the funny side to the delay but Luka Modric appeared to share his manager's frustrations.

Real ended City's dreams of winning a first Champions League title in dramatic fashion at this same stage 12 months ago and want lightning to strike twice.

The first leg at the Bernabeu saw Vinicius Jr opened the scoring against the run of play just before half-time, only for Kevin De Bruyne to level things with an equally memorable strike.

But with away goals a thing of the past, there's not really a discernible advantage for Pep Guardiola's side ahead of the return at the Etihad.

Eventually, the Real team coach did arrive and they headed to their hotel to continue preparations for the match.