The Champions League quarter-final second leg between Manchester City and Real Madrid went to penalties, with Madrid coming out on top to advance to the semis
Manchester City are out of the Champions League after losing to Real Madrid on penalties.
Rodrygo put the visitors into the lead after just seven minutes, but Kevin De Bruyne hit back for City in the second half to level the tie, which eventually went to penalties.
Luka Modric missed Madrid’s first effort, but poor penalties from Bernardo Silva and Mateo Kovacic swung the tie back in the La Liga giants’ favour and saw the hosts and defending champions bow out in agonising fashion, with ex-Chelsea man Antonio Rudiger netting the winning spot-kick.
Pep Guardiola had been looking to win his fourth home game on the spin against Real. And he was boosted by the returns of key duo De Bruyne and captain Kyle Walker, but there was no place for John Stones.
Real, meanwhile, welcomed back Nacho in defence to replace the suspended Aurelien Tchouameni. Like Guardiola said in his programme notes before kick-off, games didn’t come much bigger than this. No bigger, in fact, if the recent clashes between these two European heavyweights had been anything to go by.
City conquered Europe for the first time last season, but a team had come to town who’d done it a staggering 14 times. And with all the talent on show, it felt like a coming together of footballing royalty for what promised to be another classic.
And it was Real who landed the first blow inside 12 minutes through Rodrygo. The move started with a sublime touch from Jude Bellingham, who fed Federico Valverde to get the move going.
He picked out Vinicius Jnr and the brilliant Brazilian found Rodrygo, who finished at the second attempt after Ederson had somehow saved his first effort. It was no more than Real deserved.
City needed to respond – and they did. Erling Haaland headed Bernardo Silva’s cross just wide before looping another effort onto the crossbar, with Silva somehow failing to connect the loose ball.
The superb Vinicius created another chance for Real when he found Dani Carvajal with a pass that took out three City defenders. Carvajal saw his shot blocked, with Valverde blazing over the follow up shot.
Moments later Andriy Lunin denied Kevin De Bruyne with a flying save and the clash had officially become yet another thriller. Jack Grealish saw a strike deflect into the side netting before Phil Foden fired just over the top.
The pressure on Real was building and they almost gifted City an equaliser on 51 minutes when Nacho and Lunin got into a pickle under pressure from Haaland, but Nacho got back to scramble the ball off his own line. Foden shot straight at Lunin and Eduardo Camavinga cleared a cross from underneath his own bar.
City were battering Carlo Ancelotti’s men and as the clock ticked down Real’s resistance was finally broken, when De Bruyne pounced on Rudiger’s mistake from substitute Jeremy Doku’s cross to haul City level 14 minutes from time. And De Bruyne should have won it in normal time, but somehow fired over on 81 minutes to send the tie into extra time.
