It was a big moment of surprise for Real Madrid players and ther fans as they surprisingly stormed their way to the Uefa Champions League semi-finals after defeating Manchester City on penalties 4-3(1-1 on aggregate) in their home ground Etihad Stadium in the second leg of the UCL quarter-finals between Real Madrid and Manchester City today.
The 14-time Uefa Champions League champions Real Madrid moved a step closer to extending their title lead to 15 after the Los Blancos goalkeeper Andriy Lunin saved the penalties of Mateo Kovacic and Bernardo Silva to move to the next stage.
Real Madrid’s Brilliant Defensive and Counter Attacking Play
After the thrilling first leg quarter-final between Real Madrid and Manchester City at the Santiago Bernabeu which ended in a draw by 3-3 with goals from Federico Valverde, Phil Foden, Rodrygo, Ruben Dias(o.g) and Josko Gvadiol.
The 2nd leg match started with a total domination of possession by Manchester City but the Los Blancos and Brazilian winger Rodrygo opened the scoring for them after getting a brilliant pass and assist by his teammate Vinicius Junior down the right.
Rodrygo slotted the ball in his second attempt into the host’s nets after Manchester City keeper Ederson saved the first attempt to make 0-1(3-4 in aggregate).
But Manchester City looked to respond to the goal after the Norwegian monster Erling Haaland’s header hit the crossbar and Real Madrid’s Ukrainian goalkeeper Andriy Lunin firm saves from the repeated attempts by Kevin De Bruyne and Jack Grealish.
But in the whole match it was nothing more of Real Madrid’s masterclass defending which the Man City players were unable to break despite with a massive posession of 68 percent and 33 shots.
However, in the 76th minute the Cityzens were finally able to break Los Blancos defenders when the Belgian substitude Jeremy Doku for the English winger Jack Grealish provided the crucial assist to Kevin De Bruyne who finished it off in elegant style to keep the Cityzens in the game by making it 1-1(4-4 in aggregate).
Pep Guardiola’s side still continued to dominate thoughout the entire extra time but failed to score the winning goal into the net.
In the penalties,Ederson saved the first penalty of the Real Madrid’s Luka Modric to give City early advantage but the Ukrainian and Los Blancos keeper Andriy Lunin had other things in his mind after getting some advice from the Real Madrid’s sub goakeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga.
He saved and denied the penalties of Man City’s Bernardo Silva and Mateo Kovacic which landed straight into the favor of the visitors who subsequently booked their seat into the semi-finals of the Uefa Champions League after Rudiger’s firm and calm penalty.
With this win, Real Madrid will face FC Bayern Munich in the semi-finals of the Uefa Champions League after Bayern won the match against Arsenal by 1-0(3-2 in aggregate).
Manchester City’s Wasted Chances Cost Them The Match
Pep Guardiola will wonder how his side is not in the semi-finals of the Uefa Champions League despite scoring multiple chances, a good possession of 68 percent throughout the match, and of course the home advantage.
They had the whole match in their pocket with 846 passes, 33 shots and 88 touches in the visitor’s box.
However, the Cityzens missed massive chanches during the match which costed them the match from outta their hands in penalty shootout.
Pep Guardiola stated after the match ‘In this competition, that’s the way football happens. In other sports, for (these) statistics, we would have won.’
But the whole match was a pure Los Blancos show as they hold onto their nerves right from start till to the end which shows why they are the 14th time UCL Champions.
Player of the Match
Despite, there being a lot of contenders in the match like Rodrygo, Kevin De Bruyne, and Antonio Rudiger no one deserved it more than the Ukrainian goalkeeper Andriy Lunin who not only saved penalties but also made brilliant saves which says the fact that why he is the Real Madrid’s number one goalkeeper after Thibaut Courtois.
Lunin almost looked like an invincible wall to the Man City attackers when he saved 8 shots out of 9 on target in the second-leg quarter-final match to send the Los Blancos to their 33rd sem-final in this competition.
