For 78 minutes plus another half hour in extra time, Manchester City besieged Real Madrid’s penalty area. The Royal could keep the ball in their own ranks for a maximum of five seconds, that was how intense City pressure was. The home team was clearly the better team, but Kevin De Bruyne and co. did fall behind against a hyper-efficient Real. That is also the quarter-final of the Champions League: efficiency is so important.
After the tentative first minutes, things went back and forth between the two European superpowers. Although that game image didn’t last long. After a good strike, Vinicius brought the ball across goal, where he found Rodrygo after Kyle Walker had spoiled City’s offside trap. The Brazilian needed two attempts to get past Ederson, but he succeeded. It is a real scourge for the Citizens, because Rodrygo already scored his fourth goal ever against them.
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At that moment the match had been going on for twelve minutes and City had no choice but to press the accelerator after last week’s 3-3. De Bruyne also realized this, who was in the starting line-up this time and immediately after the goal was conceded, he urged his teammates to play faster.
The Red Devil came more into the match and tried to force openings himself. Real goalkeeper Lunin hit a long shot from KDB, while the Belgian’s next attempt flew over. Then find killer Erling Haaland, De Bruyne thought. Only Real Madrid prevented that. Time and time again, the Spanish leader’s defenders were in between. As if they could read minds. Haaland had a real chance once, but he aimed his header at the crossbar.
Haaland saw his header hit the crossbar. — © Action Images via Reuters
Strong intervention Doku
Well, Real continued to keep the spaces small and committed a real hold-up. The choice to focus everything on defense turned out to be the right one for a long time because City did not find many openings. We had to wait for Pep Guardiola to drop Jérémy Doku between the lines. If anyone can force an opening, it is the Belgian dribbler.
With twenty minutes to go, he was there. The Etihad Stadium bounced back and his teammates also understood, as they were all constantly looking for Doku. The Red Devil needed five minutes to be decisive. He passed Valverde and crossed the ball sharply. Rüdiger tried to get rid of the leather, but did so in the feet of the other Red Devil. De Bruyne did not hesitate and shot the 1-1 into the roof of the goal. Our compatriot shouted his frustration away.
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A few minutes later the strong Belgian tandem was there again. Doku started the attack and via Akanji the ball reached the free-standing De Bruyne in the sixteen. This time, however, he narrowly missed the target. Real Madrid eventually miraculously won extra time. In fact, the best chance against the flow of play was even for Rüdiger, but he narrowly aimed over in one go.
It was then a matter of waiting for the penalty kicks, where Real Madrid came out on top.
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Rüdiger kicked the decisive penalty for Real. — © REUTERS