Manchester City were far from their majestic best in thrilling 3-3 draw with Real Madrid, writes IAN LADYMAN… this feels like a bit of a steal

By all accounts Real Madrid closed the roof of this fabulously remodelled and repurposed old stadium to help the atmosphere. They needn’t have worried. Six goals took care of all that.

What a game of European football this was. To describe it as a game of punch and counter punch would be wrong. It wasn’t like that. 

Real held sway for much of the evening. Manchester City – the holders and treble winners – were not at their majestic best. Far from it.

But as Carlo Ancelotti‘s team failed to punish City when the momentum, territory and chances were all theirs in the middle third of the game, the English champions connected with two swinging hooks of their own midway through the second half and it was enough to keep them alive and indeed install them as slight favourites ahead of next week’s return leg in east Manchester.

This could have been a truly sensational night for Pep Guardiola. Having seen his team concede an early lead to trail 2-1 at half-time and struggle for so long, two magnificent goals from Phil Foden and Josko Gvardiol propelled City into the lead with 20 minutes left. In truth, Real and their crowd suddenly looked and sounded broken and beaten.

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But this was a game that had refused to conform to obvious and predictable patterns from the very first moment. 

So when Real’s right-sided forward Federico Valverde lashed a dropping ball across City goalkeeper Stefan Ortega and in to the far corner on the volley with 12 minutes left to score what was perhaps the goal of the night we probably should not have been surprised. It was a high tariff goal on a night when the bar had been set absurdly high. 

What this all means is that City should have travelled home happy. 

Not necessarily with how they had played – there is plenty to fix – but certainly with the outcome. This was not necessarily a smash and grab. They didn’t win, after all. But nevertheless this did feel like a bit of a steal.

It was not the kind of performance Guardiola cherishes. The City manager’s football is all about control. He likes his brilliance to be predictable and there was little of that here. 

City hung on for periods. Real needed to better in front of goal. Rodrygo, Vinicius Junior and even Jude Bellingham missed good chances and there is every chance they will be rueing those by the time the second leg at the Etihad is done.

City’s pre-match was not easy. Kevin De Bruyne was due to play but fell sick and Jack Grealish stepped in. 

Grealish was then fundamental to City taking the lead in only the second minute, driving hard at Real’s Aurelien Tchouameni to draw a foul for which his opponent was booked. 

As the Real defensive wall settled, Bernardo Silva whipped a low free-kick to Andriy Lunin’s right and the Ukrainian goalkeeper could not get low enough quickly enough to stop the ball finding the back of the net.

City were beside themselves and were briefly dominant. Erling Haaland – largely anonymous with just 20 touches of the ball thereafter – saw a near post half chance blocked by Lunin and Real were wobbling a little.

But Real were to bounce back quickly and emphatically. Their equaliser was a little lucky, Eduardo Camavinga’s shot striking Ruben Dias and wrong-footing Ortega on its way in. 

The second – a minute or so later – was a desperately poor one to concede, however. Vinicius Jnr was able to release Rodrygo down the left and he ran away from City’s right-back Manuel Aakanji to draw Ortega and poke the ball slowly but accurately across the goalkeeper and in to the far corner. 

The ball hardly had enough pace on it to wobble over the line but it made it and in an instant City were in a little bit of trouble.

What Guardiola’s team needed now was a little security, an ability to tighten the game and quieten it down. The home crowd – vociferous under the roof – had found their voice and that was also starting to work against the Premier League champions.

City could not get a hold of things, though. Rodrygo, in particular, kept finding of pockets of space and using them to ease the City back four in to retreat. 

Twice more the Brazilian found space to shoot and both times Ortega clutched the ball more comfortably than he may have anticipated. 

Vinicius Jnr and Camavinga also struck for goal with similar results and within all this City could only play and forage on the break.

City did carry a threat when they had the ball. Grealish worked himself a yard in the penalty area in the 33rd minute, for example, but when his shot was blocked Real were up the other end and threatening within thirty seconds. That, in a nutshell, summed up City’s problems in the opening half.

Things were to improve, though. Real threated twice more early in the second period – Bellingham shooting across goal and Vinicius Jnr firing over – but on nights like this games can turn on single moments, on mistakes or pieces of brilliance. Here it was the latter.

Watching Foden cut in from the right to shoot high across the goalkeeper with his left foot is becoming a bit of a signature move. 

He did it in the Manchester derby recently. That goal was an equaliser, too, and this one was just as good, coming in the 66th minute when his team’s need was at its greatest.

There had been little sign of it, to be honest. Rodri and Mateo Kovacic had been poor at the heart of City’s midfield and as such there had been no platform. 

But goals do strange things to game and four minutes later, Grealish passed laterally to Gvardiol and he drew a low right foot shot across the goalkeeper and in to the corner from a similar distance to Foden to give City a lead that had never looked likely.

They couldn’t hold on to it and probably didn’t deserve to. Real deserved credit for raising themselves to come again late on and Valverde’s volley really was marvellous.

City and Real Madrid have taken us to some extreme places before in this competition and it’s to be hoped they meet in a final one day. 

That will not be this year, though. With the second leg of this one to come, a high standard has been set.