Manchester City have bowed out of the UEFA Champions League after suffering a 3-1 defeat against Real Madrid at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu on Wednesday night.
Pep Guardiola’s side trailed by a single goal as they headed to the Spanish capital, following Jude Bellingham’s late winner in Manchester last week, but Kylian Mbappé quickly dashed their hopes of overturning the deficit as he bagged inside the opening five minutes.
He doubled his tally before the break and completed his hat-trick shortly after the hour mark, rendering Nico González’s injury-time tap-in nothing more than a consolation for the visitors.
As it happened
Against the reigning European champions, it was crucial that Manchester City got off on the front foot in their desperate bid to overturn the deficit from the first leg. This was precisely the predicament Pep Guardiola did not want to find himself in; but alas, his side underperformed in the new revamped league phase, which has certainly added jeopardy to the early stages of the UEFA Champions League.
Already a challenge, the task facing the Cityzens intensified after just four minutes. Raúl Asencio’s ball over the top of the visitors’ defence bounced perfectly for Kylian Mbappé, allowing the Frenchman to lift a delicate effort over Ederson and extend Real Madrid’s aggregate advantage to a comfortable two-goal buffer zone.
City would need to score at least twice to keep their hopes of progression to the round-of-16 alive – and that wasn’t an entirely unachievable objective: across all competitions, four teams have bagged twice at the Santiago Bernabéu this season, including Deportivo Alavés, now 19th in LaLiga.
But no team has yet to score three in Real Madrid’s backyard this term – and City were challenged to become the first team to do so when, with thirty minutes on the clock, Mbappé bagged his second goal of the night. Beautiful buildup saw Jude Bellingham feed Viní Jr, the Brazilian then teeing up his compatriot Rodrygo on the edge of the penalty box. It was none other than Mbappé arriving to finish the move, sending Joško Gvardiol to ground before picking out the bottom corner.
Guardiola’s half-time team talk seemingly had no effect on his side, who emerged from the break in just as lethargically as they had trotted down the tunnel 15 minutes earlier. The hosts’ dominance continued, with Rúben Dias and Ederson both called upon to deny los Blancos before Mbappé eventually completed his hat-trick on the hour mark.
A simple pass into the Frenchman’s feed from Fede Valverde allowed the forward to dash into the penalty area, cutting inside and curling past City’s Brazilian shotstopper with aplomb.
It was, surely, game over for Manchester City and an abrupt end to their hopes of progressing deep into this season’s competition. The visitors enjoyed a period of possession inside the final fifteen minutes, but chasing a four-goal deficit proved to be impossible.
Nico González’s consolatory strike inside stoppage time after Omar Marmoush offered the City fans some solace on the night, but they were in no mood to celebrate as the Cityzens bowed out of the UEFA Champions League in the play-offs, just two years after lifting the trophy in Istanbul.
The lineups
RMA: Courtois; Mendy, Rüdiger, Asencio, Valverde; Bellingham, Ceballos, Tchouaméni, Rodrigo; Viní Jr, Mbappé
MCI: Ederson; Gvardiol, Dias, Stones, Khusanov; Nico; Bernardo, Foden; Gündoğan; Marmoush, Savinho