Manchester City 1-2 Real Madrid (Vinícius Júnior x2). Through to the next round… This is the immediate reaction to the peculiar win. Get more: Player ratings, interviews and a podcast.
A 3-0 lead rarely feels so uncomfortable, but Real Madrid would have to maintain or extend this scoreline against Manchester City in order to go through to the quarter-finals of the Champions League. Thiago Pitarch would continue his run in the line-up, joined by star man Fede Valverde and Arda Güler. Kylian Mbappé
returned to the bench. Fede Valverde captained the team.
Manchester City started with intent, coming very close just minutes in with a shot off of the post – but nerves were cooled when Real Madrid were awarded a penalty. First, Vinícius Júnior hit the post, before he would have another effort intentional blocked by the rm of Bernardo Silva seconds later. The Portuguese was sent off, and the Brazilian sent the keeper the wrong way to make it 1-0, and four on aggregate. Manchester City did pull one back before half-time through Erling Haaland, but they would need three in the second half just to have a chance at progressing. 1-1 at the break.
The second half would be a strange affair. Jeremy Doku scored an offside goal before Rayan Ait-Nouri, and Fede Valverde would have goals of their own disallowed for offside. Even ten men, Manchester City looked the slightly better side – but with such a big lead, Real Madrid were never concerned. The game was never really in full flow, though – and as Kylian Mbappé came on to return to action, it became a bit wishy-washy. This was of course in Madrid’s favour, and they almost managed to seal the win when Vinícius Júnior walked the ball into the net, before another offside flag prevented the goal. The Brazilian would get his winner, though – finishing off a lovely cross to hand Pep Guardiola another loss against Los Blancos. Full time: 2-1 to Real Madrid, and 5-1 on aggregate. What did you think about this game?
