Manchester City came from behind to beat Real Madrid and record a hugely important victory at the Bernabeu in the UEFA Champions League.
Long term City target Rodrygo gave Los Blancos the lead in the first half, but Nico O’Reilly leveled a few minutes later with his first goal in the Champions League.
Antonio Rudiger hauled Erling Haaland to the floor for a City penalty, and the Norwegian striker sent goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois the wrong way to give the Blues the lead, which they held onto in the second
half.
Here are three things we learned as City recorded a famous win in Madrid:
Doku is a big game player
There were plenty of good performances on Wednesday night, but no-one looked more dangerous than Jeremy Doku.
The Belgian winger has had an unbelievable step up over the summer and now looks like a different player to the frustratingly raw talent we saw in his first two seasons at the club.
He’s making better decisions and has improved his end product, whilst maintaining his remarkable dribbling and other worldly acceleration.
I was his biggest critic a few months ago but I’m so impressed with how much he’s developed, and this year, he’s been arguably the best winger in the league, if not the world.
Nico can play further forward when Rodri is back
The Blues are missing Rodri, no doubt about it, but Nico Gonzalez is making a huge claim to continue starting as soon as the 2024 Ballon D’Or winner returns to full fitness.
Rodri tore his ACL in September 2024 and is still struggling with muscle injuries off the back of that, so Nico has been required to play every game.
At his last club Porto, Nico played as an eight fairly often, and he is certainly now comfortable enough receiving the ball in tight spaces to play there.
Twice, he flicked the ball flamboyantly around the corner successfully to a teammate and he has improved both his ability and confidence on the ball.
When Rodri is back and able to play 90 minutes several times a week again, I wouldn’t like to see Nico’s gametime suffer, so the obvious solution seems to be to start him slightly ahead of his Spanish compatriot.
The signs of progress at City are amazing
This time last year, City were right in the middle of their awful run of form, where they won just one out of 13 games in all competitions.
Fast forward to now and City have admittedly spent lots of money, but have recouped a fair amount in transfers and from their wage bill.
The likes of Haaland, Phil Foden and Bernardo Silva have returned to form and City are looking good, with this being their first big win against one of Europe’s best teams.
Yes, Madrid had injuries and Xabi Alonso is a man under pressure, but the Blues are another level up from last season.
