Real Madrid 3 Manchester City 1: match report

Blues crash out of Champions League after Mbappe hat-trick at the Bernabeu

Manchester City travelled to Madrid on Wednesday night with a huge task on their hands, aiming to overturn a 3-2 deficit following the late collapse against the Spanish side in the first leg at the Etihad. Despite the magnitude of the job on their hands, it’ll have been thought that after a 4-0 thrashing of top half Newcastle at the weekend there will have been confidence restored. Unfortunately, Real Madrid are not Newcastle. Ederson kept his place in goal. Khusanov, Stones, Dias, Gvardiol started in defence, Gonzales, Bernardo and Gundogan started in the midfield with Foden, Marmoush, and Savio in attack. Haaland and De Bruyne started on the bench amidst injuries picked up at the weekend.

The game was a total disaster for the Blues. To put it bluntly, they never once looked up for it from the very start and this was evident not just in their attack but in the defensive efforts too. An early goal might’ve made things very interesting indeed… had it been for City. Unfortunately, it was right up the other end instead after a long ball up to Kylian Mbappe who chipped the ball over Ederson to give Los Blancos a 4-2 aggregate lead after just 4 minutes. Dias attempted to head the ball away but failed in the lead up to the goal.

Things only got worse shortly after. Stones picked up an injury and was down merely 2 minutes after the initial goal went in. He could not continue and had to be taken off with a stretcher moments after. Nathan Ake replaced him. City looked bamboozled in attack and every time Real Madrid hit them on the counter it looked like they were on the ropes, it truly was domination and painful viewing for City fans. In the 35th minute, City were left exposed again after a lay off from Rodrygo to Mbappe who dribbled past Khusanov and turned over Gvardiol who slipped to the ground. Mbappe merely had to smash the ball in to double Real Madrid’s lead on the night. At half time it became clear that the story of the tie had essentially summed up the story of City’s season, it was all about damage control now. How much could City salvage from the second half to make the scoreline and aggregate score respectable? The second half was essentially the same story, City offered hardly anything in attack and Marmoush was getting practically none of the ball, a problem Haaland has suffered from for a long time.

If anything, it looked like if Real wanted to be ruthless, they could’ve been, they attacked in second gear and even at the tempo they were playing at the Blues were still defending for their lives. In the 60th minute, Mbappe scored a 3rd to give him his hat trick and erase the few doubts that might still have been lingering. Even at 3-0, consolation looked unlikely, with Real Madrid still having the better chances of the two teams.  Mcatee came on for Foden and looked good in the few moments he had on the pitch, perhaps a sign of the rebuild that Guardiola may need to sort in the summer. In the 91st minute, a City free kick from Marmoush came off the bar and rebounded to Gonzales, who kicked the ball into an empty net to make it 3-1 and 6-3 on aggregate. A small iota of credit that City could come away with. The match ended 3-1.

Any other season and such a loss is heartbreak but if anything this could be a major wakeup call for Pep Guardiola’s side. This is the first time City have failed to qualify for the Champions League last 16 since 2012. It is the 13th defeat suffered this season, the club looks unrecognisable to the record breaking machine that has dominated the Pep Guardiola era. Consistency seems to be another thing out the window for the Blues too. Long story short, with only top 4 and the FA cup to fight for now, there are questions to be answered and major changes and tough times for Pep and City to go through before the summer rebuild and that begins with Liverpool on Sunday.