On Wednesday, May 17, the results of the match in Manchester determined the second finalist of the Champions League, who will join the Italian “Inter” on June 10 in the decisive match of the tournament at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul. Two years later, the English “Manchester City” became it again.
Champions League. ½ final. Match-answer
“Manchester City” (England) – “Real” (Spain) – 4:0 (Bernardo Silva, 23, 37, Akanji, 76, Alvarez, 90+1).
The first match was 1:1.
The confrontation between Manchester City and Real Madrid was rightly called the “hidden final” or the battle of the “team of the year” against the “team of the century” by the media. Without five minutes, the champion of the English Premier League against the current champion of the Champions League.
On the one hand, it was the Royal Club that twice in recent years (in 2018 and 2022) did not let Josep Guardiola’s team into the Champions League final, on the other hand, “Manchester City” did not lose to anyone in their home stadium “Etihad” in the Champions League for the whole season seven years (25 matches in a row!) That’s just statistics, as they say, you can’t sew it to the case – everything was decided on the football field.
From the first minutes, the hosts of the field began to mercilessly “trample” the defense of “Real”, and twice only the brilliant reaction of the goalkeeper Courtois saved the Madrid team after the headers of the “killer” Holland. But in the 23rd minute, the Belgian was powerless when Bernardo Silva “shot” him after a smart pass from De Bruyne — 1:0.
The Portuguese probably decided to walk like this and headed the second ball into Courtois’s goal in the 37th minute — 2:0. It smelled fried.
“Real” had nothing to lose, and in the second half the Spaniards started to recover. For example, at Anfield recently, the “gorillas” also scored 0:2, but later they scored five goals against “Liverpool”. This is just too good of the current Manchester City. He did not allow anything. Except that he did not prevent the Madrid defender Militao from cutting the ball into his own goal after Akanji’s header, and Alvarez from marking the substitution with a goal.
By the way, for Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti, the match at the Etihad was the 191st in the Champions League (and the 50th in the tournament at the head of Real Madrid), and according to this indicator, the Italian broke the record of the legendary ex-Manchester United coach Alex Ferguson. However, Papa Carlo will have to postpone his dream of his fifth trophy in the most prestigious club tournament in Europe. Guardiola tried…
Let’s add that the decisive match between Manchester City and Inter Milan in Istanbul will be the fifth Anglo-Italian confrontation in the history of the European Champions Cup (Champions League) finals. While the score is equal – 2:2 (“Liverpool” – “Roma” – 1:1, on penalties – 4:2 in 1984; “Juventus” – “Liverpool” – 1:0 in 1985; “Liverpool” — “Milan” — 3:3, on penalties — 3:2 in 2005; “Milan” — “Liverpool” — 2:1 in 2007).
Earlier, “FACTS” reported that “Barcelona” broke away from “Real” and became the champion of Spain early.
Manchester City FC Twitter photo
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