Mourinho plays down crisis

So it is a major test of the mettle of its coach Jose Mourinho as to how he lifts his star-studded side up from the disappointment of the latest defeat at Sevilla for its UEFA Champions League opener with big-spending Manchester City on Wednesday (AEST).

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Mourinho, of course, is a seasoned campaigner at this level, as one of only three men -- alongside Ernst Happel and Ottmar Hitzfeld -- to have lifted Europe's ultimate prize with two different clubs, Porto and Inter Milan.

But expectations in Madrid are high, with the fans desperate for the club to end its 10-year drought and collect a 10th European crown.

Yet all is clearly not well behind the scenes at the Bernabeu, with Cristiano Ronaldo offering only the most muted of celebrations for his brace of goals against Granada and then declaring himself to be "sad".

New signing Luca Modric is slowly finding his feet, but Mesut Ozil, one of the driving forces of last season's run to the semi-finals and the league title, has looked tired and out of sorts.

With Ozil and Ronaldo both misfiring, much rests on the shoulders of playmaker Xabi Alonso and French frontman Karim Benzema to reproduce the home form that saw Madrid fire in 24 goals in its six Champions League home games last season.

Mourinho made no excuses for losing in Sevilla.

"It's a general state of mind," he said. "At the moment there aren't many of them out there thinking that football is the priority in their lives. I could only count on two or three of them."

But he refused to single out Ronaldo for criticism.

"There is no connection between the rumours in the press these past weeks and our poor performances. We were already bad against Getafe and even against Granada," he said.

City, on the other hand, has made a solid start in the defence of its English League title.

Desperate to join Europe's top table after years in the shadow of mighty neighbour United, City lies in fourth place with eight points and are unbeaten in its first four games.

City manager Roberto Mancini insists key striker Sergio Aguero has a chance of featuring against Madrid despite the Argentina international struggling to recover from an ankle problem.

He didn't play in the weekend 1-1 draw at Stoke after returning to training earlier in the week and Mancini had suggested he needed to prove his fitness there to have a chance of playing.

Despite leaving Aguero out of the squad, Mancini said he was still likely to play in Spain. "Real Madrid is one of the best teams in the world and to play the first game away will be very tough, but at the same time it will be a fantastic game for everyone," he said. Elsewhere, the close season's biggest spenders, Paris St Germain and Zenit St Petersburg both face tricky openers.

PSG, fresh from splashing $A175 million on bringing Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Gregory van der Wiel and Marco Verratti, to the French capital, entertains Dynamo Kyiv.

Zenit, which shelled out 100 million euros of its own on the aptly-named Brazilian striker Hulk from Porto and Belgian midfielder Axel Witsel from Benfica, takes on Malaga.

AC Milan and Anderlecht clash in the San Siro, while Borussia Dortmund and Ajax meet in the heart of the Ruhr.

Dinamo Zagreb entertains FC Porto and in an intriguing Greco-German match-up Schalke 04 travels to Olympiakos.

Arsenal will be on unfamiliar territory when it travels to the south of France for its tie against newcomer Montpellier.