Madrid, Spain-Klian Mbappé sealed the added victory 6-3 of Real Madrid over Manchester City with a Hat Trick at Santiago Bernabéu when the queen European champions reserved their place in the 16 of the UEFA Champions League.
Real, looking for his sixteenth Champions League title this season, entered the Play-off play in second leg with a 3-2 advantage over the Premier League champions after the victory last week in Etihad. And with the city striker Erling Haaland only fit enough for a place in the Bank of the substitutes, Carlo Ancelotti team did an easy job of the winners of the 2023 Champions League.
For City, its miserable season continues and the club now only has the FA Cup as a realistic cutlery possibility as they enter the clash of Sunday with the leaders of the Premier League, Liverpool, seventeen points behind the Arne Slot team. – Mark Ogden
Mbappé offers the type of night with which he dreamed
Mbappé had already played in some great games for Real Madrid. There were two classics, two derbies from Madrid and Borussia Dortmund, AC Milan and Liverpool in the League phase. But this was his first great game. In Real Madrid, where the standards are higher than anywhere else, that means a draw of the Champions League, against another superior club, ideally with a vibrant second leg at Santiago Bernabéu.
And tonight, Mbappé delivered emphatically. That's why he joined Madrid. Having previously experienced what can happen on a European night in this stadium, Mbappé put Paris Saint-Germain ahead here in March 2022 before a hat hat hat karim of the second half sent Madrid through him, now It is on the other happiest side of the equation.
Mbappé's performance in the first half against City was ruthlessly efficient. I just needed 14 touches to drink five shots. Two of them were goals, with an XG (expected objectives) of 0.73. And what goals were. The first was elevated, infallible and for the first time, on Ederson after the long ball of Raúl Asencio.
The second occurred after a fluid movement that involved Jude Bellingham, Vinícius Júnior and Rodrygo, before an agile feet game of Mbappé. In the second half, a deserved hat of hats was completed, entering to caress a shot, left standing in the lower corner. Those late seasonal doubts about Mbappé's adaptation feel terribly a long time ago.
His goals record at the knockout games of the Champions League is amazing: 24 goals since 2017, including the hat Trick tonight. No player has scored more. That is why Madrid worked so hard to bring Mbappé here. And there will be many bigger nights to come. – Alex Kirkland
Time catching up with Man City
The signals have been there for a while, especially during the worst season of the nine -year reign of Pep Guardiola as administrator of the city of Manchester, but this dismantling at the hands of Real Madrid offered indisputable evidence that time has reached this side of The city.
The city did not offer such resistance to victory on the side of Bernabéu and Guardiola was as passive as perhaps before. But take a look at the service team and it is easy to see why this group of players, a group that has won so much, has reached the end of the line.
Kevin de Bruyne, the city's talisman for so many years, is now 33 years old and the injuries have affected Belgium's midfielder to the extent that this mandatory game did not even begin.
John Stones, 30, has spent 10 weeks apart due to several injuries this season and the defender of England now faces another team spell after lasting only eight minutes in the Bernabéu before breaking with another injury.
And in the midfield, Ilkay Gündogan, 34, must never have wished to return to the city in a free transfer from Barcelona last summer after having left shadows for its true opponents.
Bernardo Silva, another 30 -year -old boy, was also anonymous on a night when the Real seemed hungry, energetic and full of beliefs, none of which was applied to the city.
The Champions League is always the real proof of a superior team and it has been found that the city has been found with this season. They were only placed in the play-off round after finishing 22 in the initial stage of the competition and now they have given them a verification of brutal reality. – Ogden
Valverde is more than a right support
Carlo Ancelotti once said jokingly that Federico Valverde is the third best side in the world, after Dani Carvajal and Lucas Vázquez. But maybe it's time to ask: was Carlo selling it? Because they are not mistaken, the Uruguayan, nominally a central midfielder, is an outstanding prominent. It could be a long -term candidate for the role in Real Madrid (such as Colega ESPN Gab Marcotti has argued in the past) if it was not so important in the center of the field.
Valverde's exhibition against City, and some of the theoretically theoretically tested in Savinho and Omar Marmoush, were effortlessly. A second half Tackle, immersing himself to marry Marmoush, obtained one of the greatest cheers of the Bernabéu crowd. Valverde even recovered to make a technically perfect block of a cross, arms behind his back, to avoid any possibility of a handball, inside the area moments later. The Valverde, once shy and spoken, is now one of the leaders of this team, with the captain's bracelet with Carvajal, Vázquez and Luka Modric outside the side.
It is also very modest. “We know that I am playing there because others are injured,” he said before the game when asked about the challenge of replacing the right.
“I think I have done quite well. If I have no opportunities in the center of the field in the future, I will play in full-back!” – Kirkland
Khusanov is not ready for the great moment
Abdukodir Khusanov has had a nightmare start in his Manchester City career since he arrived from the lens in January and continued for Uzbek's defender against Real. Since he had a debut for Forget against Chelsea last month, the 20 -year -old has found that it is difficult in the Premier League and his trust is clearly on the floor.
But with the injuries that hit a lot in the Etihad, Pep Guardiola had no choice but to select Khusanov in his initial team against Real.
Khusanov is still a young man who learns the game and, usually, would not have been thrown in the background to the extent that he has been since he arrived at the club. But imagine that his mood in having the task of being the challenge of marking Vinícius and then having to deal with Mbappé when the royal striker scored by the hat-trick gave him a race on the real left.
He also had to deal with Bellingham playing in his field area, but despite his workload, his teammates helped him rarely. He needs time outside the team so that he can adapt to the demands of his new club before his trust is destroyed out of repair. – Ogden
After a slow beginning, Madrid has returned among Ucl's favorites
Madrid's performance in the phase of the League was disappointing and unworthy of a team that, he remembers, had never failed to progress from the old group stage. Beef by Lille, AC Milan and Liverpool and only a series of late victories, against the beatable opposition in Atalanta, RB Salzburg and Brest, said a place in the playoffs. Madrid looked like a deeply defective team, harassed by injuries, and unable to balance the twin demands of accommodating Mbappé, Vinícius, Bellingham and Rodrygo with the maintenance of a defensive unit in operation.
Just a couple of months later, it is a different story. Yes, the warning: Manchester City is not very good. And it would be reckless to get too many broad and radical conclusions. But some of the doubts about this side of Madrid have dissipated on these two legs.
The defense is much more solid, with Asencio improving all the time, along with an already adjusted Antonio Rüdiger. Valverde, as previously discussed, is possibly an improvement in Vázquez on the right side. In the center of the countryside, Aurélien Tchouaméni could have presented his best exhibition of the season against City on Wednesday, and Dani Ceballos continues to exceed expectations.
The most important thing in the attack, the 'fantastic four' are flying. The second goal of Madrid, with the four strikers involved, was an example of what they can do. Mbappé looks like a different player from the one who started the season, and both Vinícius and Rodrygo have tended to deliver in the key games of the Champions League. Bellingham's suspension for the first 16 -round game in Madrid, after collecting a reservation on Wednesday, is the only concern. But it prefers that the suspension arrives now, than later in the elimination phase.
In general, Madrid goes to the last 16, where they belong: among the favorites to win this competition. – Kirkland
Haaland's physical condition is a concern for the city
Haaland was not enough to start against Real Madrid, but Manchester City striker did not even participate in the warm -up prior to the game, so how serious is the Norwegian knee injury?
That will be the question that worries the supporters of the city, and also intriguing Liverpool before the shock of Sunday's Premier League in Etihad because the initial verdict of the head of the Guardiola city was that the knee injury suffered against Newcastle United The weekend was not a concern.
Haaland was replaced at the end of the game against Newcastle after falling without questioning before grabbing his right knee. He seemed visibly worried, but he was able to get out of the field after treatment, so Guardiola tried to calm the fears about the forward's aptitude after the 4-0 victory.
But not having taken part against the Real, in a game City had to win after losing 3-2 in the first leg, it means that there is a problem that Guardiola is worried. Haaland was appointed substitute, perhaps as the last launch of the dice if the game was close in the final stages, but his failure to warm before or during the game has raised more questions than answers. – Ogden
