Laporte fears missing at least three weeks

Blow for City defender after injury in Madrid Real lacking killer edge of Ronaldo, says Rodri

Aymeric Laporte could be sidelined for at least three weeks after suffering another injury in Manchester City’s Champions League win over Real Madrid at the Bernabeu.

The France centre-half appeared to be in tears as he left the field in the first half of Wednesday’s 2-1 victory with a damaged hamstring.

Laporte faces tests to determine the extent of the problem – which forced his substitution after 33 minutes – but he is thought to have accepted he will be on the sidelines for a minimum of several weeks.

A three-week lay-off would rule him out of crucial fixtures, starting with Sunday’s Carabao Cup final against Aston Villa and including the Manchester derby and the second leg of the Champions League round-of-16 tie against Real.

It is a blow for City manager Pep Guardiola, who has only recently been able to call upon his best defender again after Laporte missed five months with a knee injury.

Rodri, meanwhile, has stoked the fires ahead of the return leg with Real by claiming the Spanish giants are missing Cristiano Ronaldo and were fortunate not to suffer a heavier defeat in the first game.

Vinicius Junior, the Real forward, launched a scathing attack on the club’s treatment by referees after claiming Gabriel Jesus’s equaliser should have been ruled out for a push on Sergio Ramos.

Rodri dismissed Vinicius’s complaints and said Real collapsed physically in the final 15 minutes, when City scored twice, and missed the killer edge in front of goal that Ronaldo used to provide.

Ronaldo left for Juventus in 2018 after scoring 450 goals in 438 appearances over nine seasons in Madrid, during which time he won four Champions League titles.

“Of course you can tell [when someone like Ronaldo is not there],” midfielder Rodri said. “Those kind of players, of which there are basically two in the world, who tip the balance, you notice when they’re not there. They’re a bit flatter. But that doesn’t mean they’re worse.

“They have good midfielders and they impose on you more, although in ‘arrival’ they do less. They’re still a very hard team. They dropped off physically in the last 10, 15 minutes and we made the most of that. If the game had lasted a little longer, we could have done more damage still.”

Rodri felt City passed an important mental test against Real and demonstrated the sort of belief and personality after falling behind that they have lacked at times this season during a disappointing league title defence.

“We never let the game slip away from us,” Rodri said. “We managed to do something that we have lacked all season, which is hold on in the bad moments and not lose our shape or control.

“We’re not here just to get through the round, but to try to win the Champions League.”

Real were quick to point the finger at referee Daniele Orsato. Kevin De Bruyne scored the winner from the penalty spot, after Raheem Sterling was fouled by Dani Carvajal,

and Ramos was sent off for fouling Jesus.

Vinicius felt Jesus’s goal should not have stood and claimed the 13time European Cup winners have become regular victims of questionable officiating. Asked if he felt Real were deliberately targeted by referees, Vinicius said: “Yes, yes. We’re the best team, with the most

Champions Leagues, so it is always going to be like that. We didn’t collapse physically. Gabriel Jesus commits a foul for the first goal. Everyone knows that.

“It’s the same every game. They [the referees] always come here and blow against us. Everyone knows it is a foul. He [Jesus] did the same as I had done. It’s not normal.”