Real Madrid see off blunt Manchester City with sharp counter-attack to reach Champions League quarters

Manchester City 1-2 Real Madrid (1-5 on aggregate)

Real Madrid will face one of Bayern Munich or Atalanta in the Champions League quarter-finals, after seeing out their advantage from the first leg against Manchester City. Alvaro Arbeloa side has won his second Champions League knockout tie, and will be relatively content with his side’s showing at the Etihad.

A frantic pace characterised the opening exchanges. In the first minute, had Fede Valverde applied the level of control he did in the first leg, he could have lobbed Gianluigi Donnarumma after getting in behind. In the two minutes that followed, Rodri Hernandez and Rayan Cherki both forced saves from Thibaut Courtois, setting the tone for the match. However the game took its decisive turn in the 20th minute.

After Vinicius Junior got in behind the backline, he cut in a thumped the right post. After the ball was recycled, his effort from the right was blocked on the line by Bernardo Silva, but after a VAR review, it transpired that it was with his elbow. Sent off, Vinicius converted his second penalty of the tie, rolling it to Donnarumma’s left.

In the first minute after the restart, Erling Haaland forced a brilliant save from Courtois inside the six-yard box, before Vinicius ran clear from the resulting counter-attack. Breezing past Ruben Dias, he blazed over the bar. Some of the tension had gone out of the tie by this point though, as the home crowd came to terms with the sending off, and true belief exited the stadium. Just before halftime Haaland did finally get on the scoresheet. Jeremy Doku, a constant problem on the left, beat Thiago Pitarch, and Trent Alexander-Arnold could not clear the cross, allowing Haaland to bundle in at the far post.

Brahim Diaz had come close after leaving Ruben Dias on the floor, and forcing a save from Donnarumma too, with Los Blancos driving into space regularly. Even the halftime break was dramatic though. Thibaut Courtois was replaced by Andriy Lunin for Real Madrid, and Pep Guardiola also sent on Marc Guehi and Nathan Ake for Dias and Tijjani Reijnders.

Real Madrid coast through second half

Throughout the game, City dominated possession and never seemed to go more than five minutes without creating a chance. At the same time, Real Madrid relished the opportunity to release Vinicius into space. There was a comfort about Los Blancos, knowing that they were creating clear enough openings to cause enough issues for Manchester City if they needed to respond to City goals.

Haaland forced two more saves from Lunin, but they were straight at him, and between the Norwegian, Rodri and Cherki, the clinical edge City needed to make a game of it was lacking. A sign of it being that Pep Guardiola removed Haaland with half an hour to go. The other significant change was Kylian Mbappe, who came on with 20 minutes to go after six games out. The Frenchman showed no signs of rust when racing clear of Rayan Ait-Nouri from the halfway line, but was unlucky not to get a penalty after his shirt was pulled. A sign of how open play was, Valverde, Vinicius and Doku all had goals ruled out in the second half.

Overall, Real Madrid will have to be delighted with the ease in which they made their way through a second leg that looked difficult from the outset. Arbeloa’s side were far from watertight at the back, and defending deep didn’t altogether work, given the number of good chances City failed to convert. However what risks they did run, were more than mitigated by the service of Arda Guler, the bursting runs of Valverde and the burning speed of Vinicius. Los Blancos will face one of Bayern Munich or Atalanta in the quarter-finals, with the Bavarian side 6-1 up from the first leg.