Meltdown for City in Madrid
Late drama as resilient Real snatch spot in final
MANCHESTER CITY’S Champions League dreams came crashing down again last night as Real Madrid struck three times in five minutes to seal a stunning fightback and reach the final. City led 4-3 from the first leg and extended their advantage through Riyad Mahrez on 73 minutes. But, in second-half stoppage time, Pep Guardiola’s men were stunned when substitute Rodrygo scored twice in 90 seconds to send the match into extra-time. And, in the fifth minute of the extra half-hour, Karim Benzema scored from the penalty spot to break City’s hearts and send Real through to the final in Paris against
Liverpool on May 28.
IT was there. Within their grasp. So close, they could almost feel it. Yet this is Manchester City, in Europe. Nothing is ever simple. Nothing straightforward. And this is Real Madrid, too, the club that sees this competition as its birthright.
So, from leading 5-3 on aggregate going into stoppage time, somehow Pep Guardiola’s men let it slip. And Carlo Ancelotti’s took full advantage.
Rodrygo wrested it from them. A second-half substitute for Toni Kroos, he scored twice. Once in the final minute of the game for what looked to be a consolation, then a minute later to take the semi-final into extra-time. Unbelievable.
As if that hammer blow wasn’t enough, up stepped Karim Benzema to slot home the winning penalty — after Ruben Dias was adjudged to have brought him down — and book a final with Liverpool.
City were stunned. In normal time, Jack Grealish had two chances to put the result beyond doubt. The first was cleared off the line, the second sent wide by the merest touch from Thibaut Courtois moments after Riyad Mahrez had given the visitors a 71st-minute lead. How could this be?
How did it even get to extratime? Benzema, kept quiet for most of the night, hooked a volleyed cross from the left side of the penalty area for Rodrygo’s first — Ederson beaten to the ball by his outstretched foot.
For the second, Marco Asensio crossed and the Brazilian forward rose above a now rattled defence and sent his header past Ederson. Astonishing.
So another classic, like the first leg? Not entirely. This was largely a tight game, with few chances and what looked to be the most important scored with 17 minutes remaining just as the hosts began to experience the first signs of self-doubt.
The streets around the Bernabeu were raucous and overwhelmed before the game, the noise within, deafening. A giant banner of talisman Benzema was unveiled.
Yet as the game wore on, City’s defensive strength came increasingly to the fore. Benzema barely had a shot; Ederson hardly had a serious save to make. Kyle Walker, playing through the pain barrier, was quite brilliant against Vinicius Junior until he limped off with 20 minutes remaining. He could not have done any more.
Guardiola made sensible, containing, changes. Ilkay Gundogan for Kevin De Bruyne was one. A goalless draw was progress. What we have, we hold.
Yet it is never simple like that, for City. No sooner had they switched to shore up the game, City scored.
What a set-up by Bernardo Silva.
He ran storming through the middle, the heart of the Bernabeu, drawing opponents, creating space. Gabriel Jesus was on, and looked the obvious ball. But this is City, so Silva ignored it and went for something far harder. Telepathically, he sensed Mahrez arriving like a train. He bypassed Gabriel Jesus and played him in instead.
Mahrez’s shot was so powerful it did not matter that it was relatively near to Courtois in goal. He was powerless to prevent it.
Some think that being the manager of Real Madrid is just a case of getting 11 players on the field and letting them fly, that Ancelotti’s laidback demeanour was the result of having it, well, easy. Here was a half of football that showed why a coach gets the Real Madrid gig.
It’s not easy playing the best teams in the world; it’s not easy matching Guardiola’s City.
Yet that’s what Ancelotti did, in the opening 45 minutes. He took a team that had the beating of Real Madrid a week ago and, for the most part, nullified them.
He kept De Bruyne quiet; he used Luka Modric to stop Rodri bringing the ball out of the back; he limited the impact of Mahrez, who went into this game a goal short of City’s most prolific Champions League campaign. Phil Foden was a handful but, then, he so often is.
City had the best chances of the first half, but not many of them. They rushed to a two-goal lead in the first leg, but this was a more cautious affair.
Ancelotti looked to contain City’s threat while packing a counter-attacking punch, largely through Vinicius.
Guardiola played a more patient game, having hit Madrid with shock and awe at home. It was anybody’s game.
Plenty of needle, too. Just eight minutes gone and Italian referee Daniele Orsato had already booked Aymeric Laporte and Modric for a heated clash.
Laporte looked to have delivered a slap and then collapsed to the floor, as if from recoil.
Benzema had a couple of early sighters go wide, before setting up Vinicius after 18 minutes. The wide man shot over but the danger was clear and present.
City had to get nearer to Benzema — and for the rest of the half they did.
A Kroos free-kick after 27 minutes was deflected narrowly
over, but City will have been largely happy with their defensive resilience at that stage.
One tackle by Kyle Walker on the lighting quick Vinicius was stunning. It took place at full pelt, on the side, and in the penalty area. The tiniest misjudgment could have been fatal.
City got closer and Courtois, in Madrid’s goal, was called on to make two fine saves.
The first came after 20 minutes when Foden won the ball on the right and Rodri picked out De Bruyne, who moved the ball swiftly on to Silva.
The angle was tight but Silva struck the ball well and Courtois did splendidly to keep it out.
Just three minutes later, De Bruyne couldn’t bring the ball under control in the area but did just enough to tee up Jesus, who hit a lovely bending shot just wide.
With five minutes to go before half-time, Courtois saved again — this time from the lively Foden, striking a shot from range.
Yet goalless was no good for Madrid, and in the second half that showed.
Ancelotti had given a couple of none-too-subtle signals — arms outstretched in the universal WTF gesture when passes went astray or the ball was simply hoofed into space — and Madrid’s ambition gradually grew.
They didn’t actually get a shot on target in the first half, but within seconds of the restart Dani Carvajal sent a cross flashing through the City area, where it was missed at the far post by Vinicius. Plainly, there was plenty of this to come.
City just didn’t expect it to unfold in the dying seconds of the game. Twice they were brought to their knees. Courtesy of Rodrygo.
When extra-time unfolded, that man Benzema was just waiting to stick in the dagger.
REAL MADRID (4-3-3): Courtois 6; Carvajal 7, Militao 6 (Vallejo 115), Fernandez 6, Mendy 7; Modric 5 (Camavinga 75), Casemiro 5 (Asensio 75), Kroos 6 (Rodrygo 68); Valverde 6, Benzema 6 (Ceballos 104), Vinicius Jr 7 (Vazquez 115). Subs not used: Carson, Steffen, Ake, Egan-Riley, Lavia, McAtee, Palmer. Booked: Carvajal, Modric, Militao, Valverde. MAN CITY (4-3-3): Ederson 6; Walker 6 (Zinchenko 72), Dias 6, Laporte 6, Cancelo 6; De Bruyne 6 (Gundogan 72), Rodri 7 (Sterling 99), Silva 8; Mahrez 7 (Fernadinho 85), Jesus 7 (Grealish 78), Foden 6. Subs not used: Fuidias, Lunin, Alaba, Marcelo, Diaz, Jovic. Booked: Laporte, Sterling, Zinchenko. Man of the match: Rodrygo. Referee: Daniele Orsato (Italy).