Manchester City (4-2 on agg.) 2-1 Real Madrid
It was some time since these sides clashed in Madrid on a night when fans were still allowed inside football stadiums, Sergio Ramos received the 26th red card of his career and Manchester City came of age in Europe.
Since then, Real have recovered to regain the La Liga crown, while City have relinquished their English equivalent and were surprisingly sent packing from the FA Cup at the semi-final stage.
What’s more, Los Blancos had secured 30 points out of 30 to win La Liga after the restart so Zinedine Zidane’s men were a side in form.
Yet, it is the Champions League which is now the holy grail for the wealth-laden English club and they weren’t going to let the record 13-time winners undo all their hard work from February.
You also suspected Pep Guardiola would love nothing more than to see off the arch-rivals from his Barcelona days – and here he got his wish.
Highlights of the game
There was no question this was the match of the week anywhere in world football. And with Madrid unbeaten in 11 games and City winning the last seven at the Etihad, something had to give.
What few expected was that trailing 2-1 from the first leg, Real would be such generous visitors.
In truth, the better side won but this was a gift-wrapped victory for City as the usually reliable Raphael Varane picked one of the worst possible occasions to go AWOL from the backline.
Sure, with Ramos suspended, the SBOBET Champions League betting odds didn’t favour them but City were also missing their most potent frontman in Sergio Aguero.
It mattered not.
Only nine minutes had elapsed when Varane dithered on the ball inside his own penalty area, a mistake which allowed Gabriel Jesus to pinch possession and find Raheem Sterling who sidefooted home for his 100th goal for the club.
Urged on by squad members and backroom staff sitting behind the technical area, City were clearly pumped up for this one and Sterling showed lovely footwork and seemed set to add a second only for Casemiro to block his shot.
Of course, Real haven’t won the Spanish title without possessing bags of quality, and Ederson had to be alert to push away a Karim Benzema shot and an Eden Hazard drive as the visitors sought a quick response.
It was Hazard’s teammate, Thibaut Courtois (also on his return to England), who was next called into action to punch away a dangerous Kevin de Bruyne delivery before Ederson was again tested by Benzema.
The Frenchman would not be denied a third time as he headed an equaliser from a Rodrygo cross but, even then, at no point did I think Real were capable of turning the tie around in their favour.
Chances continued to arrive at both ends but City made sure midway through the second period when Varane made his second uncharacteristic mistake of the night, selling Courtois short, which allowed Jesus to nip in and tuck home a crucial second.
Real had few world-class options on the bench and certainly not Gareth Bale – Real’s final match-winner two seasons ago – who didn’t even make the squad after coach Zidane claimed the Welshman did not want to participate.
Whether he watched or not, he would have seen few Champions League highlights for his own side.
This may have been the 13-time champions’ 50th European Cup campaign, more than any other side, but it has ended just as it did last season – at the last 16.
City are into the last eight.
Key statistics
Sterling is the first Englishman to reach three figures for the club since Dennis Tueart in 1981 and is just the sixth Englishman to score 20 Champions League goals. Only Wayne Rooney reached that total at a younger age than Sterling.
Jesus is just the second player to score in both legs of a Champions League knockout tie against Real for an English side after Ruud van Nistelrooy with Manchester United in 2002-03.
Varane is the first Madrid player to commit two errors leading to a goal in a single Champions League match for more than a decade.
Guardiola is the third manager to eliminate Madrid in the knockout stages of the Champions League on more than one occasion, along with Marcello Lippi (1995/96, 2002/03) and Ottmar Hitzfeld (2000/01, 2006/07).
In their 76th Champions League match, City scored their 150th and conceded their 100th goal in the competition, the fastest to both figures for any English side in the competition.
Madrid have lost the home first leg six times in UEFA competition and won only one tie, recovering from a 1-0 loss with a 2-0 win at Wacker Innsbruck in the 1970/71 European Cup Winners’ Cup second round.
Only five times in the Champions League era has a team turned around a tie after a home first-leg defeat, although three of those last season; Tottenham against Ajax in the semi-finals (0-1 h, 3-2 a) and, in the round of 16, Manchester United against Paris-Saint Germain (0-2 h, 3-1 a) and Ajax against Madrid themselves (1-2 h, 4-1 a).
City have never failed to win a European tie after an away first-leg victory. Their record against Spanish clubs in two-legged knockout ties is won two, lost four.
This was Benzema’s third goal against City for Real.
What’s next?
Lyon now await a week on Saturday in the one-legged quarter-final.
The remainder of the competition will be played in Portugal, all single-leg affairs, and played at two venues in Lisbon (Benfica’s Estadio da Luz and Sporting Lisbon’s Estadio Jose Alvalade) from August 12-23.
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