Manchester City, intractable, largely dominates Real Madrid and reaches the final

The Citizens have taken their revenge. Eliminated in the semi-finals of the Champions League by Real Madrid last season, the Manchester City players have this time passed the Spanish obstacle, and in a good way. On Wednesday May 17, they gave the defending champions no chance, unceremoniously ousted after a one-sided return match and won 4-0 by Manchester City in their home base of the Etihad Stadium.

However, the first leg brought hope for the people of Madrid, largely dominated but able thanks to their realism to get out of it with a draw (1-1). Especially since Karim Benzema and his teammates had accustomed their supporters to some fairly magical comebacks last year, of which the Skyblues had also been one of the victims, just like PSG in the round of 16.

Problem for gamers White House (“white house”): Manchester City was not determined to fall twice in a row into the same trap. Still looking for their first title in the most prestigious of European competitions, Pep Guardiola’s men have applied their Catalan coach’s favorite game plan with authority: to keep the ball again and again (61% of the time overall of the match, 80% after the first quarter of an hour).

Unable to hold the ball, the people of Madrid exposed themselves to attacks from the locals, which were quick to arrive. However, Thibault Courtois delayed the inevitable for a long time, notably by releasing two attempts from the Norwegian Erling Haaland (13^e21^e). But abandoned by an often apathetic defense, he finally lost on a powerful strike from Bernardo Silva (23^e).

BERNARDO SILVA OPENS THE SCORE AGAINST REAL ⚡️ The Portuguese concludes a superb collective action and it’s 1-0 in… https://t.co/XBzpmhw2mY

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Pep Guardiola has been waiting for this for twelve years

Compromised, the mission became almost impossible for the people of Madrid a few minutes later when Bernardo Silva scored twice with a header sent quietly into the top corner 37^e. A little earlier, Toni Kroos had somewhat awakened his family with a powerful strike on the bar (35^e), but this flash was the only one for the Spanish clan. The Citizens even allowed themselves to rotate their squad at the end of the match, which did not prevent them from scoring two new goals (Eder Militao against his camp in the 76^eand Julian Alvarez at the 90^e).

“It’s a wonderful evening for us. We knew it would be tough, but to beat this Real team 4-0 at home is wonderful, declared Bernardo Silva at the final whistle at the microphone of BT Sports. My performance in Madrid was not what I would have liked and I wanted to compensate for that, because I blamed myself after the first leg. I wanted to do better for my team-mates and for the fans and I’m very happy to have scored twice.”Omnipresent, the former Monegasque was voted man of the match after having put French midfielder Eduardo Camavinga through an ordeal, replaced on the left of the Madrid defense for this match.

Thanks to this convincing success, the Skyblues give an appointment to Inter Milan – who defeated their neighbor AC Milan the day before – on June 10, in Istanbul, for the final. By then, the trophy cabinet may already have been filled on the side of the Etihad Stadium: the Skyblues will play the Cup final on June 3 against Manchester United, and will no doubt have validated a new league title. from England at the end of June.

So many opportunities for the Citizens to prepare for their final, two years after falling at the same stage of the competition against Chelsea (1-0). This match will also have a special flavor for Pep Guardiola. Arrived in Manchester in 2016, he has not won the Champions League since 2011, at the time with FC Barcelona. If he considered his ” legacy [à City] already exceptional » at a press conference this week, he would probably not be against the idea of ​​adding the first Champions League in the history of the club.