On Wednesday evening, Manchester City welcomed Real Madrid to the Etihad for the second leg of their meeting in the quarterfinals of the Champions League, after the first leg in Madrid ended in a 3-3 draw.
Real took the lead through Rodrygo Goes in the 12th minute, and it was Kevin De Bruyne who equalized in the 76th. The contest went into extra time and eventually penalties, where City were ahead after the first round as Julian Alvarez scored his penalty and Ederson Moraes stopped Luka Modric’s. However, Andriy Lunin in the Real goal was the hero of the following two rounds, saving spot-kicks from Bernardo Silva and Mateo Kovacic, while Jude Bellingham and Lucas Vazquez both scored. Phil Foden for City, Nacho for Real, and Ederson himself for City all scored, and the responsibility of taking the decisive penalty fell to Antonio Rudiger. The German defender was very accurate and scored, sending his team into the semifinals.
The game
No team would expect to go to the Etihad and dominate against Manchester City, and Real certainly didn’t presume to. They didn’t exactly willingly go into a low block, not intentionally anyway. They defended as far away from their goal as possible, not falling into the trap of inviting a team like City into their box, but they were still extremely dangerous on the counterattack. Consequently, City dominated the ball for 68% of the 120 minutes played, but the first real chance at either end was Rodrygo’s 12th-minute opener.
Dani Carvajal hit a long pass from deep in his own half and Bellingham showed great skill to control it under pressure upfront. As the City defence retreated to catch up, Bellingham involved Federico Valverde who played it simply to Vinicius Junior on the right wing, and the Brazilian found his compatriot on the edge of six yards. Rodrygo had escaped the attention of Kyle Walker and fired first straight into Ederson, but then capitalized on the rebound.
City’s first chance came seven minutes later. Having played into Real’s box in a trademark way, they eventually set up Erling Haaland for a header from close range which bounced off the crossbar and fell to Bernardo Silva two yards from the goal – but the Portuguese midfielder uncharacteristically failed to control it. De Bruyne forced a fine save from Lunin later and Jack Grealish came close after dancing into the box, and that was mostly it for the first half.
Naturally, City increased the pressure at the start of the second half and threatened through Foden, and Haaland once almost forced Nacho to run into the goal with the ball, but the experienced defender managed to whack it away just in time. Grealish forced another good save from Lunin in what was his last attacking contribution of the game, as he left the pitch to be replaced by Jeremy Doku.
The substitution produced results almost immediately. Rodri found Doku on the left, the freshly introduced winger used his pace to get around Valverde and whip a low ball into six yards, where it was parried short by Rudiger, straight into the feet of De Bruyne. The Belgian playmaker showed the kind of composure expected from one of the best in the world, and slammed the equalizer into the near top corner from close range.
Just four minutes later, De Bruyne came very close to scoring again, but his effort from around 20 yards went inches over the bar after grazing Lunin’s fingers. For the rest of the match, there were chances at both ends, but Haaland, Foden and Rudiger failed to convert in favour of their respective teams. The last notable moment was an effort by Alvarez from a tight angle, straight at Lunin.
Looking ahead
Having won the penalty shootout, Real will of course progress to the semis, where they’ll face Bayern Munich, who seek to salvage an underwhelming season with Champions League glory after triumphing over Arsenal. But before that, they’ll have a nice opportunity to increase the lead at the top of La Liga table to 11 points in the upcoming El Clasico this weekend.
City will, meanwhile, turn to their domestic tasks, where they play Chelsea in the semifinals of the FA Cup, but more importantly, Pep Guardiola and his men will be hoping this heartbreak doesn’t affect their Premier League campaign too badly. Like Real, they top the table, but Arsenal and Liverpool are just two points behind.
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