Manchester City and Pep Guardiola have encountered another major setback in what has been an unusual season, experiencing their earliest elimination from the UEFA Champions League since the 2012-13 campaign.
The English Premier League holders suffered a decisive defeat against Real Madrid.
Kylian Mbappe displayed his world-class talent by scoring a remarkable hat-trick in the second leg of their knockout round play-off, leading to a 3-1 victory and inflicting a 6-3 aggregate loss on City.
City's struggles were exacerbated by the absence of their star striker, Erling Haaland, who was sidelined due to a knee injury.
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Lacking the firepower needed to compete with the 15-times winners of the competition, City struggled to make a real impact at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Despite Nico Gonzalez scoring a consolation goal in added time after an Omar Marmoush free-kick hit the bar, the match belonged to Mbappe.
Tonight marked Manchester City’s 13th defeat across all competitions this season, which is the highest number of losses Guardiola has experienced in a single campaign as a manager.
That’s with City still having 13 league games remaining, plus an FA Cup tie at home to Plymouth Argyle to come.
