Six goals and a wonderful exchange of blows – record winners Real Madrid and defending champions Manchester City offered the spectators a spectacle in the quarter-final first leg of the Champions League.
At the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, the guests from the Premier League missed out on victory after taking the lead twice on Tuesday evening (April 9th, 2024), and in the end the score was 3:3 (1:2).
Bernardo Silva gave Manchester City an early lead with a direct free kick (2nd minute), Eduardo Camavinga (12th) and Rodrygo (14th) turned the game around for the hosts within two minutes. In the second period, Phil Foden (66′) and Josko Gvardiol (71′) brought about another turnaround before Federico Valverde (79′) added the final point. The goals in the second half from Valverde, Foden and Gvardiol were real works of art.
Live ticker Real Madrid – ManCity arrow right quarter-finals arrow right
Guardiola is enthusiastic, Kroos a little less so
Germany’s national team returnee Toni Kroos, who was in the starting line-up, summed up the event on DAZN as follows: “I don’t feel that satisfied, admittedly.” The evening contained too much spectacle and too many mistakes for him.
City coach Pep Guardiola, on the other hand, was thrilled: “It was a fantastic game, we’ll take the draw,” emphasized the former Bayern coach and also paid a huge compliment to his German goalkeeper Stefan Ortega, even though he was beaten three times in the football frenzy Bernabeu.
Supporting roles for Rüdiger and Kroos
In the end, the German Real defender Antonio Rüdiger and also Kroos only had supporting roles on this wild evening of football. Rüdiger did grim defensive work for a long time, but was unable to prevent the English team from scoring dream goals. Kroos initially set the pace, but had to leave the field in the hectic phase for Luka Modric.
It was the fourth duel between the two clubs in the past five seasons. It was now “a classic,” said Guardiola, and the atmosphere in Madrid matched it. English fans had been celebrating in the Plaza Mayor since midday, the sun was shining, and the mood in front of the stadium was increasing by the minute before kick-off.
City keeper Ortega is powerless to concede goals
Once inside, Silva caught the host off guard. From a half-left position, the Portuguese aimed a free kick at the near corner when not only Real’s goalkeeper Andrej Lunin was expecting a cross – but the goal was clearly the goal of the keeper.
Madrid, however, came back, helped by two deflected balls, ex-Bielefeld keeper Ortega was powerless: Dias deflected a shot from Eduardo Camavinga into his own goal, and Manuel Akanji had a heel on the ball when Rodrygo scored. Real left the guest, who was without Kevin De Bruyne, who was ill, now had the ball for long stretches, stood remarkably deep and repeatedly surprised Manchester at high speed after winning the ball.
In the second period, however, Foden and Gvardiol each hit the corner with a fantastic trajectory – before Valverde volleyed a soft cross into the goal.
