Real Madrid 3 Man City 0
Didn’t see this one coming. To be honest before the game I thought City would be pretty comfortable in this game despite it being Real Madrid at the Bernabeu in the Champions League and I couldn’t have been further from what actually happened in the match. City probably just edged the opening twenty minutes but it was Real Madrid who opened the scoring after Courtois launched a missile to Valverde on the right who’s touch was magnificent to set him through on goal as he touched it past Donnarumma and fired home from a pretty tight angle to give Madrid the lead in the 20th minute, City looked stunned and it didn’t take long for Madrid to score again after Vini’s deflected pass fell to Valverde on the left who finished brilliantly past Donnarumma with his weak foot to give Madrid an unliekly 2-0 lead in the 27th minute. City seemed to regain some composure before half-time but were stunned yet again as Brahim Diaz lofted a deft ball over Ruben Dias into Valverde whose first touch took the ball over Guehi’s head and he smashed the ball past Donnarumma to score his first career hat-trick in a spellbinding first half for Real Madrid. Vini had a chance to seal the tie with a penalty in the 58th minute but his tame penalty was saved by the City goalkeeper to keep Pep Guardiola’s side somewhat alive going back to the Etihad next week, who saw that coming?
An all-timer performance from Federico Valverde. I don’t want to do a disservice to just how well Real Madrid played as a whole on the night but that might just be one of the best matches I’ve seen from anyone in the Champions League over the last 10 years. The goals were just unbelievable capped off by an absolutely outrageous touch over Guehi for his third but my favourite was the second on his left-foot at a tight angle past one of the best goalkeepers in the world to put Madrid 2-0 up. We’d still be waxing lyrical if it was a striker but for a midfielder to put together a performance like that as captain is unheard of in my opinion, we all know Valverde almost has an infinite amount of energy but I think he’s perfect down that right-hand-side were he has space to run into and we saw that tonight for 90 minutes straight. You have to give credit to Arbeloa for playing Valverde on the right when he easily could have just sat him in midfield where he does struggle at times, a performance for the ages by Federico Valverde earned a 10/10 rating by L’equipe making him only the 21st player to achieve the honour from the French publication, well-deserved in my opinion.
A disastrous night for Man City. City came into this game as huge favourites with the amount of players that Real Madrid were missing but it just didn’t happen for them tonight. The team selection from Pep was weird leaving out Mateus Nunes for Khusanov and keeping Cherki and Foden on the bench to start Savinho on the right who was hooked off at half-time, the less said about Erling Haaland the better as he only managed 10 touches on the night as Rudiger yet again won that matchup between the pair. It was a completely different game from the one in the league phase as City couldn’t find a way past the imperious Thibaut Courtois who yet again had a brilliant match along with assisting the first goal for Valverde, there’s so much work for City to do next week at the Etihad as yet again another Premier League club faces a 3-goal deficit in the Champions League.
What has happened to Erling Haaland in 2026. It seems like every season that Haaland comes flying out of the blocks scoring every game and then hits a dip at some point but this dip has been extremely worrying for City as Haaland has now only scored 2 non-penalty goals in his last 17 games, a decline that big has to be worrying for Pep going into the crunch part of the season where he needs his star striker to be on top form. I don’t know what it is but Haaland just doesn’t seem to have the knack of scoring in the big games yet as he’s yet to score for City in a major final and I don’t know if its just me but he just seems to disappear when City are struggling in a game, at the start of the season we saw him get involved in the build-up for City which was scary at times with how comfortable he looked but now he’s gone back to camping in the box and barely touching the ball all game. Maybe it’s the injury he’s dealing with at the minute but he’s going to have have one hell of a performance next week if City want to go through.
Can City stage a comeback at the Etihad next week? We’ve seen City destroy Madrid at the Etihad in the past but this City team is lightyears away from those City teams of the past but that doesn’t mean all hope is lost for next week, City have the firepower to hurt this Madrid team as we’ve already seen this season but Madrid in the Champions League knockouts are a different proposition and they will defend for their lives next week at the Etihad. That Vini penalty was massive as it would have surely finished the tie giving throwbacks to Dembele’s miss at the Nou Camp against Liverpool back in 2019 when Barcelona were 3-0 up and could made it 4, City have that blueprint to look at for next week but it’s going to take some performance to overturn Madrid in a competition which they basically own, we’ll be watching next week at the Etihad, hopefully it’s a classic.