What a night and what a shame.. Pep Guardiola will not want to get carried away by one match but for so long Manchester City startled the kings of the Champions League with the team that the manager has been backing all season. Erling Haaland put them in dreamland late on, only for even later goals from Brahim Diaz and Jude Bellingham to swing the tie back in the favour of Real Madrid with a 3-2 win.. It has been a particularly chastening season for Guardiola, who pushed back on a transfer rebuild last summer because he believed in his group of players and then had to watch as Sporting, Spurs and the rest humble the Premier League champions. Having been second only to Real Madrid in Europe in the last four years, they needed a second-half comeback against Club Brugge to say they were the 22nd best team in this year’s Champions League.. The problems this season, largely driven by an injury crisis that seemed to fade away like it was fate for Real (or for 30 minutes at least until Jack Grealish came off; Manu Akanji wouldn’t return for the second half either), brought a £180m spend in the January transfer window. In the 1-0 win on Tuesday night, none of the four signings stated: this was the team Guardiola has been waiting for all season.. Speaking ahead of the game, Ruben Dias played down the idea of City wanting revenge for last year’s exit. His comment that he was too busy celebrating Rodri winning the Ballon d’Or to care that Real boycotted the ceremony felt like a bit of needle though, and Carlo Ancelotti doubled down on the stance of his club not to attend in protest that Vinicius Jr had not won.. As kick-off approached, an enormous banner filled a lower portion of the South Stand showing Rodri kissing his trophy with the Oasis lyric ‘Stop crying your heart out’. The man himself snapped a picture of it from the stands and the noise levels shot up as Blues on and off the pitch were determined not to go down without a fight.. What followed was City’s best performance of the season by a long way. Against a team studded with more superstars than they will face anywhere else, the Blues more than matched their opponents to play a leading role in another episode of the modern Clasico that has got a continent hooked.. Obviously, City suffered for large spells against such a formidable attack. Ederson saved well twice from Kylian Mbappe and the offside flag saved him from giving a penalty away for bringing down Vinicius, while there were countless blocks from the defence; if it wasn’t Josko Gvardiol it was Nathan Ake, or Ruben Dias, or Akanji.. That is precisely what City have been lacking – fit defenders who know where to be and what to do when faced with danger. In front of them, John Stones was majestic in the Rodri role in another reminder of how the Ballon d’Or winner isn’t the only City star that has been sorely missed this season.. Backed by a solid base and a raucous Etihad that booed Vinicius’s every touch and were on their feet for every thumping City tackle, the attackers could work their magic and a brilliant move from back to front saw Grealish play an identical ball to his assist a Leyton Orient that Gvardiol chested down for Erling Haaland to hammer in. After a yawning wait for VAR to confirm the goal wasn’t offside, City’s edge had given them an edge on the scoreboard that few saw coming.. More impressive than the goal was how City managed the game after it. A side that has too often immediately given advantage back to their opponents after scoring this season kept Real at bay for a good 20 minutes before a late onslaught at the end of the first half.. There was positive intent after the break too, with Haaland seeing a shot deflected onto the bar and Guardiola urging Stones and Ake up for corners. By then, the hosts were wilting though as injuries returned like time being called on Cinderella’s dreamy escape from her problems.. City had to tweak their shape when Grealish went off and Akanji’s enforced change meant Rico Lewis on at right-back, which Real welcomed by immediately doubling up on him with Mbappe and Vinicius. Guardiola had already decided an hour was enough for Ake on his first appearance in a month, yet the decision to wait for a set-piece before bringing Mateo Kovacic on meant that Ake’s last act was playing Mbappe onside as he shinned Dani Ceballos’s cross in for the equaliser.. Real sensed their opportunity, and Ederson did well to save from Jude Bellinngham and force Mbappe wider with a shot in the box than he would have wanted. On the touchline, Guardiola urged his players to calm down and slow the game down.. As tension grew in the stands, up stepped Foden to jink his way into the box and draw a foul from Ceballos, allowing Haaland to smash home a second. That paved the way for a famous City win, only for Ederson to parry a shot into the path of Brahim Diaz and then Lewis missed a late interception and Vinicius poked it through for Jude Bellingham to break City hearts.. City will head to Madrid with renewed hope but less expectation after that late turnaround in a performance that showed they have the team to match the best but, when injuries bite, maybe not the squad.
