Key events
Man City 0-1 Real Madrid (agg 3-4)
Half-time: Referee Daniel Orsato’s whistle is greeted by loud boos and it’s difficult to say why. He hasn’t done anything I can think of to upset City fans, while the players in light blue have played pretty well despite going behind to Rodrygo’s strike in the 12th minute. Real Madrid are in the ascendency but this tie is far from over.
45+1 min: Rodri is first to a long Lunin kick-off and the ball finds it’s way back to the Real goalkeeper. His next clearance is also long and this time Phil Foden is the grateful recipient.
43 min: Phil Foden tries to pick out Grealish with a cross towards the far post. Carvajal heads the ball out for a corner. Lunin sends De Bruyne’s inswinger out for another one at the other side of the pitch. Foden takes this corner and his effort, like most of De Bruyne’s before him, is also cleared at the near post.
41 min: Assorted City players swarm around Rodrygo and Kevin De Bruyne robs him of possession deep inside the Real Madrid half. The Brazilian goes down injured and there’s a break in play.
38 min: Dani Carvajal is booked for a foul on Grealish wide on the left and will serve a one-match ban should Real advance to the semi-final. It’s a free-kick for City in a good position. Kevin De Bruyne sends the ball curling towards Gvardiol but Nacho heads clear. Offside.
36 min: Jack Grealish advances down the inside left, takes a slightly heavy touch and his shot/cross is deflected into the side-netting by Rudiger. Nothing comes of the corner.
36 min: Kevin De Bruyne is penalised for a shove in the back of Toni Kroos out by the touchline. He protests his innocence but it’s a fair cop.
34 min: City win themselves another corner. Kevin De Bruyne raises his right hand and again and sends this delivery skidding low towards the near post. It’s cleared.
32 min: Grealish advances and tries to poke the ball into the far corner but his effort goes out for a corner off Carvajal. Kevin De Bruyne raises his right arm, which is apparently the signal for Real Madrid defender Antonio Rudiger to prepare to clear at the near post with his head.
30 min: A Valverde dink towards the far post, trying to pick out Rodrygo, is intercepted by the head of Gvardiol. Real Madrid are letting City have plenty of possession but the home side is looking vulnerable on the counter-attack.
28 min: Antonio Rudiger heads away a De Bruyne corner at the near post but Real Madrid are unable to clear convincingly. The ball is pinged towards the far post, where Erling Haaland’s downward header into the six-yard box is gathered by Lunin before anyone in a City shirt can pounce.
27 min: Lunin dives to his left to save a rasping drive from Kevin De Bruyne after City had taken a quick free-kick.
24 min: Gvardiol dives in to block a Carvajal shot after the Real right-back had the ball slipped his way by Vinicius Junior. The ball falls for Fedi Valverde, whose shot from distance is wild.
21 min: A loose pass by Josko Gvardiol coughs up possession to Real Madrid deep in their own half, giving them some temporary respite from the City onslaught that was prompted by Rodrygo’s impertinent act of scoring.
19 min: In the space of about five seconds, Kevin De Bruyne brings a smart save out of Lunin, before Erling Haaland heads the ball against the woodwork. Bernardo Silva can’t react quick enough to slot the rebound off the goal frame home from a tight angle. After a very slow start, somebody in the Manchester City dug-out appears to have flicked The Switch.
18 min: It was Kyle Walker who lost Rodrygo for the Real Madrid goal, the full-back perhaps showing signs of ring-rustiness after missing five or six games through injury.
17 min: Bernardo Silva stands the ball up for Erling Haaland, who heads over the bar under pressure from Nacho.
16 min: Manchester City win three corners in quick succession, the second of which Liunin is forced to tip over his own bar. It was an excellent delivery from Kevin De Bruyne.
14 min: That goal came out of nowhere. Vinicius Junior sent in a low cross from the right, which Rodrygo hit first time from close range. Ederson saved superbly, even if it it was pretty much straight at him, but the goalkeeper was powerless to prevent Rodrygo’s shinned follow-up from hitting the back of the net.
GOAL! Man City 0-1 Real Madrid (Rodrygo 12) (Agg 3-4)
Real Madrid lead! Rodrygo scores at his second attempt after bringing a sensational save out of Ederson after connecting with a low Vinicius Junior cross from the right.
11 min: Camavinga tries a shot from distance but his dipping effort is straight at Ederson, who gathers.
10 min: Ten minutes in and it’s very cagey at the Etihad. Who’ll blink first?
9 min: Kevin De Bruyne sends his first delivery of the night into the Real Madrid penalty area, but Lunin gathers comfortably.
8 min: Jack Grealish plays the ball inside to Rodri, who is disposssessed by Toni Kroos. The ball ricochets back towards Grealish, whose attempted cross is blocked by Dani Carvajal.
7 min: Except for just now, when he didn’t.
6 min: While City keep playing the ball out from the back, any time the ball finds its way back to Real Madrid’s goalkeeper Lunin, he kicks it long either off the turf or from his hands.
5 min: It’s been a very slow start, with little or nothing of note to report so far. Real are pressing City quite high but to little effect. It should go without saying that these players are all very comfortable with the ball at their feet in a tight space.
3 min: City enjoy a series of sustained possession, their defenders and goalkeeper pinging the ball around at the back as they feel out their Spanish visitors.
2 min: Real Madrid goalkeeper Andriy Lunin gets his first touch and gets the ball launched towards Eduardo Camavinga in the middle of the park.
Man City v Real Madrid (agg 3-3) is go …
1 min: Kyle Walker won the toss for Manchester CIty and elected to kick-off, so the ball is booted straight from the centre-circle back to Ederson, who gets an early feel of the ball at his feet.
Not long now: The teams leave it late to emerge from the tunnel but finally make it out led by Italian referee Daniel Orsato and his team of match officials. There’s a place in the Champions League semi-finals up for grabs and kick-off is just a few pre-match formalities and a couple of minutes away.
Ancelotti: “Football belongs to the footballers”
“Football always belongs to the footballers,” said the Real Madrid head coach yesterday. “I’ve said it many times and tomorrow it’ll be the same. I realised what happened in the first leg, it was a very entertaining game and I think the players will be, as always, the protagonists. Also, it’s a match where there’s going to be a lot of quality on the pitch.
“We don’t have to look back at the past, we have to look at tomorrow’s game and how to approach it, taking into account what happened a week ago. We have to compete, to fight and to be confident. The result is all square, there’s another 90 minutes and anything can happen. We have the confidence that we have the quality to create problems.”
Pep Guardiola: “We are going for it”
Pep Guardiola: With our people, we feel safe, we feel protected, we feel supported,” said the Manchester City manager in his pre-match press conference. “We know we can handle momentum. We are going for it. We have a gameplan we believe in, and we are going for it. If we lose, we lose. We shake hands – Real Madrid will deserve it. I want us to play and deserve to be in the semi-finals.
“You have to adjust something from Bernabeu – the result was good, but we have to perform a little better. We have the last training session, and we will talk about that and hopefully go through. We need to feel the pressure – we don’t want to lose the game. We need hunger to compete. It is true we feel more comfortable because we have won [this competition now]. Our people at home will help us a lot. You can’t for 90 minutes, all the time, be better, you have to suffer.”
Jude Bellingham: The England midfielder has said joining Real Madrid was a “no-brainer” despite interest from many other elite clubs including Manchester City. Jamie Jackson reports …
Those teams: Kyle Walker returns to the Manchester City line-up for his first appearance since pulling up with a hamstring injury during England’s friendly against Brazil three weeks ago, with John Stones starting on the bench.
Ederson keeps his place in goal after returning from injury against Luton at the weekend, while Rodri is also back in the side after being rested for that game. Kevin De Bruyne missed the first leg against Real last week but returns tonight. Mateo Kovacic makes way.
For Real Madrid, Nacho comes in for the suspended Aurelien Tchouameni. Having returned from a seious knee injury in Real’s win over Mallorca at the weekend, Eder Militao is among the substitutes.
Manchester City: “Blowing away Real Madrid in a Champions League semi-final second leg before their home crowd was the fantasy Manchester City made reality last spring,” writes Jamie Jackson. “The challenge for the holders is to knock the Madridistas out again at the Etihad Stadium, and after the scintillating performance of a year ago there is no sense of inferiority.”
Manchester City v Real Madrid line-ups
Manchester City: Ederson, Walker, Dias, Akanji, Gvardiol, Rodri, Foden, Bernardo Silva, De Bruyne, Grealish, Haaland.
Subs: Stones, Ake, Kovacic, Doku, Ortega, Alvarez, Gomez, Matheus Luiz, Carson, Bobb, Lewis.
Real Madrid: Lunin, Carvajal, Rudiger, Nacho, Mendy, Valverde, Camavinga, Kroos, Rodrygo, Bellingham, Vinicius Junior.
Subs: Eder Militao, Modric, Joselu, Lucas, Ceballos, Garcia, Diaz, Guler, Arrizabalaga, Gonzalez.
Your City side to face Real Madrid 🩵
XI | Ederson, Walker (C), Akanji, Dias, Gvardiol, Rodrigo, De Bruyne, Bernardo, Foden, Grealish, Haaland
SUBS | Ortega Moreno, Carson, Stones, Ake, Kovacic, Doku, Alvarez, Gomez, Nunes, Bobb, Lewis#ManCity | #UCL pic.twitter.com/2NtHEk7XTt
— Manchester City (@ManCity) April 17, 2024
Tonight’s match officials
Daniele Orsato leads tonight’s team of match officials and will take charge of his third match between these sides since 2020.
Early team news
Real Madrid defensive midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni has to sit this one out through suspension after being booked last week, while centre-back David Alaba and goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois are long-term absentees.
Vinicius Junior, Eduardo Camavinga, Dani Carvajal and Eder Militao all started on the bench for their side’s win over Real Mallorca last Saturday, while Rodrygo is expected to have recovered from an unspecified knock.
Despite their hectic playing schedule, John Stones is Manchester City’s only injury concern, having missed last weekend’s game against Luton with a “niggle”. Kyle Walker has recovered from a hamstring injury, while Rodri is expected to return after being rested on Saturday.
Man City v Real Madrid (agg: 3-3)
Following last week’s thriller under the closed roof of the Bernabeu Stadium, this Champions League quarter-final second leg could not be more finely poised.
Manchester City are the hot pre-match favourites but in Real Madrid they face an extremely tenacious team famous for always finding a way …. except on occasions like last year’s semi-final against the same opposition, when they got blown away at the Etihad Stadium.
In the interests of entertainment, those without a dog in this particular fight will be hoping that City don’t have it all their own way this time around and that we’ll be treated to a wild and chaotic white-knuckle ride to match both of last night’s quarter-final second legs. Kick-off at the Etihad Stadium is at 8pm (BST) but we’ll have plenty of team news and build-up in the meantime.
