The first leg of the Champions League quarterfinal between Real Madrid and Manchester City, played on Tuesday at the Santiago Bernabeu, unsurprisingly turned out to be a thrilling encounter of two fantastic teams, with neither able to quash the hopes of the other.
City took the lead after less than two minutes, thanks to some brilliant thinking and accurate shooting from Bernardo Silva. Real equalized 10 minutes later as an Eduardo Camavinga shot picked up a deflection off Ruben Dias and cheated Stefan Ortega in the City goal. Another two minutes later, the Spanish giants were ahead as Vinicius Junior released the run of Rodrygo Goes and the latter somehow poked home despite the best efforts of Ortega and Manuel Akanji to stop him. In the 66th minute, the score was level again as Phil Foden fired a rocket into the top corner, and Josko Gvardiol put City ahead again with an equally fine strike in the 71st. However, the pick of the bunch was arguably the volley which Federico Valverde caught perfectly to leave Ortega stunned and set the final score with 11 minutes left.
The game
The match started in an extremely lively and seemingly chaotic manner, which, despite City’s early lead, appeared to suit Real’s pacey attackers a lot more than the controlling approach usually employed by Pep Guardiola’s side. City mostly dominated possession and that remained the case throughout, finishing the game with having the ball for 62% of the time, while Vinicius and Rodrygo, particularly in the absence of Kyle Walker, represented a constant threat by moving quickly and very directly towards Ortega’s goal.
There were, on the other hand, a few very good opportunities at both ends in the second half, particularly one for Real which Vinicius squandered by shooting over the bar from a good position while the score stood at 2-1, and one which City winger Jack Grealish wasted by running into a huddle of opponents inside Real’s box after some intricate…
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Author : Veselin Trajkovic
Publish date : 2024-04-10 15:27:06
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