That’s all from me. Thanks for reading, and for your emails.
Here are the other scores from tonight’s Champions League playoffs.
Borussia Dortmund 0-0 Sporting (3-0 agg)
PSG 7-0 Brest (10-0 agg)
PSV 3-1 Juventus (aet, 4-3 agg)
And here is Sid Lowe’s match report from the Bernabéu. Cheers again! Until next time!
Real Madrid’s Carlo Ancelotti is the next up in front of the mic:
We were a compact team defensively. Our goal is to be good defensively, we always have a lot of quality [up] front.
I wasn’t relaxed, for sure. City were always in the game.
Mbappé is a fantastic player. When Rodrygo, Bellingham and Vini are able to connect together, we are really dangerous.
Pep Guardiola, Manchester City manager, speaks to the cameras:
We could not deal with the physicality or the rhythm they had. We accept it, the best team now. We congratulate Real Madrid and will focus on the Premier League.
Not just Kylian Mbappé, they have so many players that can make the difference. We will fight to be here [in the Champions League] next year. We were so lucky to win this competition once and to arrive in another final. We are not at the level at the moment.
Sid Lowe's report from the Bernabéu
There was no comeback, not even a glimpse, of one. No epic, just the end. When they scored in the last minute, it was greeted with ironic cheers, this stadium continuing to laugh at them as they had done for some time now. The goal did not matter: the only bad news on a perfect night was the yellow card that means Jude Bellingham will miss the first leg against Bayer Leverkusen or Atlético Madrid. Real Madrid were superb, confirming that they are candidates for the competition they consider their own.
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A reminder that Manchester City spent £184.8m in January. That the team looked so toothless with Haaland and are so reliant on the big Norwegian is a big failure by the club’s recruitment. No elite club should be one injury away from a performance like that.
Jude Bellingham talks to the cameras. The Englishman was quietly excellent tonight, knitting things together nicely to let Mbappé and Vini Jr take centre stage.
It was a good evening. Rudiger coming back is big for us, not just on the pitch but in the dressing room beforehand, having that loud presence.
We always want to play teams at their best and we saw the video [of Haaland’s injury against Newcastle]. He’s a good mate and I hope he’s not too bad. But they have players who can step in.
Kylian is just flying now. But sometimes we need a reminder that talent isn’t enough. You need organisation, you need commitment and we have worked on that after some bad results recently.
Valverde is unbelievable. He has come into the captain’s role and looks so comfortable whatever position he plays. He played right back tonight and looked like he’d been doing it for years.
We’re so unpredictable to play against because we are so fluid going forward.
Per Opta, Kylian Mbappé has now been directly involved in 501 goals across all competitions between club and country (359 goals + 142 assists), aged just 26 years and 61 days.
The Frenchman is very, very, very good at football. Who knew?
Madrid will face one of Atlético Madrid or Bayer Leverkusen in the last 16. A reunion with Xabi Alonso and Leverkusen would be pretty tasty!
“The amount of ‘Stay Humbles’ and ‘Stop Crying Your Heart Out’ replies to the City socials is going to be off the charts,” emails Matthew Lysaght. “I, for one, am here for this”.
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Full-time: Real Madrid 3-1 Manchester City (6-3 agg)
Real Madrid are through to the last 16 of the Champions League! Of course they are!
GOAL! Real Madrid 3-1 Manchester City (Nico Gonzalez 90+2, 6-3 agg)
Marmoush clatters a free-kick onto the Madrid bar, and Gonzalez is there to gobble up the rebound! The goal is awarded after a lengthy VAR check. There is an ironic cheer from the City fans in the away end.
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90 min: Two minutes added on here.
89 min: Penalty shout for Manchester City! Brahim Diaz elbows McAtee just inside Madrid’s area. McAtee hits the deck, this is surely a penalty! No! The referee misses the incident and VAR chooses not to flag it. It’s immaterial with the scoreline but that is utterly bizarre, as Guardiola is making clear to the fourth official!
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87 min: For all their lovely play tonight, Madrid have dug in on the rare occasions where they have needed to. Valverde and Asencio have been relentless. As I write that, Courtois takes one in the gonads.
85 min: Bellingham, in a more advanced position since Mbappé’s substitution, collects a Vini cross and lays on a perfect pass for Rodrygo, but the Brazilian only hits a shot straight at Ederson, his compatriot.
82 min: Madrid make another change. Tchouameni off, Modric on for his 573rd Real Madrid appearance – the Croatian is 10th on the all-time list of the club’s appearance makers. A legend at 39 years old.
80 min: If De Bruyne isn’t injured, and has been left out by choice, I think this is the confirmation that he won’t be in a City shirt next season, with the Belgian still on City bench as he watches McAtee and Kovacic come on. De Bruyne’s contract expires in the summer, although nothing has been announced over his future yet.
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78 min: Changes made from both sides. Madrid show some mercy as they withdraw hat-trick hero Mbappé and Ceballos for Camavinga and Brahim Diaz, formerly of City of course.
City bring on Kovacic and McAtee for Gundogan and Foden.
75 min: Foden stings the palms of Courtois from range! The first time Madrid’s keeper has been called into action! It’s taken 75 minutes.
73 min: After Mbappé hat-trick, Vini Jr seems determined to get in on the act. One shot flies high and wide after a nice shimmy from Mbappé, the next Vini Jr effort brings a good save out of Ederson.
71 min: The ‘olés’ have started from the home fans. I simply can’t believe that Guardiola has made only one (enforced) substitution.
69 min: So nearly 4-0! Mbappé’s stepovers are so deadly as he leaves Aké in the dirt and cuts the ball back from the byline, but Vini Jr is denied by a sensational block from Dias. City clinging on.
67 min: It’s finished at Villa Park. Aston Villa 2-2 Liverpool.
65 min: It’s not the fact that City have gone out here. It’s the manner of the defeat. The players looked like they have downed tools. I never truly thought that Guardiola would leave City, even after all the troubles this season. But watching this, I can now easily see him departing at the end of the season.
63 min: Sure, Madrid have been too good. But this is an embarrassing way for City to go out of the Champions League, even with their injuries. This remains an expensive squad, packed full of experienced internationals and with an elite manager, and they have shown all the gusto of a cat draped across a windowsill.
GOAL! Real Madrid 3-0 Manchester City (Mbappé hat-trick 60, 6-2 agg)
If we were in any doubt, that is that. Absolutely dreadful defending from City, as Mbappé casually picks the ball up on the right of City’s box, steps inside Foden and bends a shot into the far corner with his weaker left foot like it is the easiest thing in the world. Mbappé’s second hat-trick for Madrid!
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58 min: Mbappé is fine, and back on the pitch.
57 min: Great save from Ederson! Another sublime cross from Valverde splits the City defence in two, and Mbappé gets a toe on it. At point-blank range, Ederson spreads himself and tips the ball wide! Ederson takes man and ball, leaving Mbappé in a heap on the floor, but that was a brilliant stop (even if replays later showed Mbappé to be offside). Mbappé stays down and is going to have to have some treatment.
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53 min: “Last week the Rugby League said they were investigating Salford for the team they picked after they lost 82-0,” emails John Ryan, intriguingly. “Considering the team Guardiola picked, that he was going around saying that they had a 1% chance of winning this game, and the performance here (if you’d even call it that), should Uefa be doing likewise to City?”
51 min: City are in a low block defensively as they try to ward off a third Madrid goal of the evening. Rodrygo hits a fierce drive from 25 yards out, straight at Ederson, before Valverde crosses dangerously towards Rudiger (!) at the back post. Only a crucial clearance from Dias keeps the aggregate score at 5-2.
49 min: City chasing shadows as Rodrygo flashes a shot over the bar. With every player, Madrid seem to have two or three passes on in each phase of play.
47 min: Nico Gonzalez lets the ball slip under his foot, and the new Manchester City signing rugby tackles Vini Jr to the ground to halt a dangerous Real Madrid counter-attack for the most obvious booking of the evening. Not a good start from City.
Peeeeeeeeep!
No changes from either side! Shocking from Pep Guardiola. But then, I guess he’s arguably the greatest ever manager, and I’m, well, doing this.
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Champions League-related half-time reading:
Meanwhile, at Villa Park in the Premier League, leaders Liverpool trail 2-1! Around 30 minutes to go there.
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Half-time: Real Madrid 2-0 Manchester City (5-2 agg)
City must score (at least) three goals in the second half, if they are to force extra time. Surely Grealish, Doku, De Bruyne will be thrown on. City have to do something. SOMETHING!
45+2 min: City end the half as they started the first three minutes, with possession of the ball, but without any bite.
45 min: Two minutes added on, which seems low given the injury to Stones.
Gundogan is caught by Ceballos on the edge of Madrid’s area, but City’s players are all caught offside from the resulting free-kick, as Foden swings in a cross.
44 min: For a team that are so reliant upon patterns of play, perhaps not surprising that City are struggling with the ball, given their talisman and regular focal point is sitting on the bench, injured.
42 min: “I know the same could be said for a few City players, but Dias seems a shadow of the player he was,” emails John Potter. “Making basic errors and sluggish”.
Dias was certainly weak with Mbappé first goal. The slightest nudge from the Frenchman sent Dias sprawling. I think he’s still a quality defender, though, and still just 27 years old.
40 min: Yellow card for Bellingham, who catches Foden a little clumsily in midfield. The Real Madrid man doesn’t look best pleased, but perhaps with the refereeing furore ringing in his ears, doesn’t contest the decision.
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38 min: From the resulting corner, Marmoush can’t beat the first man, Bellingham. In a game where they are so inferior, it will be so disappointing for Guardiola that they are not making the most from set pieces.
37 min: Asencio goes in strong on Marmoush in Real Madrid’s area! It’s a risky tackle, especially with the City forward not really going anywere, but perfectly timed. A proper challenge, that, and the Real Madrid fans love it.
35 min: Oooooh, Gvardiol won’t want to see that back. Mbappé sent him to the shops.
GOAL! Real Madrid 2-0 Manchester City (Mbappé 33, 5-2 agg)
Aaaaaaaaand that might be that. Vini switches flanks to the right, breaks the offside trap to canter downt the right wing. The Brazilian crosses and the ball makes its way to Mbappé in the centre-left channel, who chops outrageously inside to leave Gvardiol on his backside, and finishes inside Ederson’s near post! A devastating finish!
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31 min: I’m being unfair about that through ball, it was actually a lovely outside-of-the-boot clip by Tchouameni.
29 min: Chance for Mbappé! Again it’s a straight ball over the top to the Frenchman that cuts City open, and Mbappé chases another bouncing ball, taking his shot early … which Ederson punches clear. That was straight at the City goalkeeper but well hit. A couple of yards left or right and that would have had a chance.
27 min: Yellow card for Gundogan, who gives the ball away carelessly and then brings down Rodrygo as he attempts to win the ball back. I struggle to see what the ageing German brings to this midfield if he is not able to set the tempo and keep possession. Bernardo Silva is another that can do that. City need energy and physicality, Kovacic, De Bruyne and Matheus Nunes are all options on the bench.
25 min: Guardiola is desperately trying to rally his troops on the sidelines. But City are struggling to get any rhythm going forward.
23 min: City look a little lost. Khusanov can’t get near Vini Jr.
21 min: Dani Ceballos is on corners for Real Madrid! Well, I never. I have to say his renaissance in a Madrid shirt had slightly passed me by. Madrid take the corner short and Valverde takes a short from distance, but it is deflected behind.
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18 min: City win a deep free-kick and have a chance to load the box with their big defenders. But the delivery is poor. On the City bench, De Bruyne looks on.
15 min: “That was literally a carbon copy of the goal City scored against Newcastle at the weekend,” emails Brendan Large. “I think we can all turn off now can’t we?”
I’m not so sure. Madrid are in a commanding position in the tie, but they definitely do have an ability to self-combust and make things interesting. This season they have lost to Lille, Milan and Liverpool in the Champions League.
Yes, Mbappé’s goal was VERY similar to Marmoush’s opener against Newcastle. Route one!
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13 min: Vini Jr gets his first opportunity to run at Khusanov and leaves the young defender for dead with a neat stepover. Dias has to come across and concede a corner on the City byline, from which Bellingham glances a dangerous header just past Ederson’s far post. Madrid are, ominously, growing into this game.
11 min: “As a Montrealer that just got pummelled with 75 cm (30 inches) of snow, I have to wonder, why is the roof closed?” asks Pierre-Yves Lebon. “I just looked and it’s a nice evening in Madrid. I’ll go back now and shovel around my car for the sixth time in two days”.
Vibes, Pierre-Yves! Noise, atmosphere, that sort of thing.
9 min: A disastrous start for City! Things could barely have gone worse in the opening nine minutes. Dias switches from left centre-back to right centre-back to allow the left-sided Aké to take his place. That doesn’t seem like a big change for Dias, but he will have been training all week in one position, with patterns of play etc, and now has to adapt.
Stones injured!
7 min: City must reset but they must do so without John Stones! After a faint coming together with Vini Jr, England defender looks like he’s pulled something and has to come off. Aké comes on to replace Stones.
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5 min: The camera pans to Guardiola, who has his head in his hands. He knows how crucial the first goal was.
GOAL! Real Madrid 1-0 Manchester City (Mbappé 4, 4-2 agg)
Madrid score with their first attack! Asencio lobs a long ball forward, Dias misses his header and Mbappé is onto it straight away. Ederson half-comes out for the ball but is in no-man’s land as Mbappé lets the ball bounce once before lifting an easy lob into the net!
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3 min: It takes a full three minutes for Real Madrid to gain possession of the ball, as City hog it (without creating anything). Gvardiol nutmegs Rodrygo.
2 min: It’s Khusanov at right back for City! The Uzbekistan international has plenty of pace, and he’ll need that against Vini Jr.
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Peeeeeeeeeep!
City get us underway in Madrid.
Some confusion as to whether Stones or Khusanov will play at right back for City, such a crucial position tonight. I guess we’ll find out very shortly.
The teams are out at the Bernabéu! Real Madrid in their resplendent white strip, City in their maroon away number. The away side are booed during the Champions League anthem.
A check on tonight’s other scores/games. In the early Champions League playoff kick-off: Borussia Dortmund held firm at home to Sporting, secure a 0-0 draw that protected their 3-0 first-leg win.
There are two other second legs kicking off at 8pm: PSG v Brest (3-0 agg) and PSV v Juventus (1-2 agg).
We’re around half-way through the first half in the Premier League clash between Villa and Liverpool.
Elsewhere, there is a relegation megamatch in the Championship between the two bottom-placed clubs: Luton v Plymouth.
I bet Michael Owen is sitting at home, watching the TNT Sports pundits on telly, and wondering how he gets on that sweet, sweet Steve McManaman gravy train.
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The first leg was a belter of a game. Here’s what our writers made of it, in the immediate aftermath.
Sid Lowe on Real Madrid:
Barney Ronay on Manchester City:
Jamie Jackson’s player ratings:
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For Real Madrid, there’s a big boost with the return of Antonio Rüdiger in central defence. The German hasn’t played in nearly three weeks, since the defeat to Espanyol on 1 February. I wonder how fit he is.
Just as he did in Manchester, Dani Ceballos is selected in central midfield. Camavinga, Guler and Modric on the bench.
Pep Guardiola, Manchester City manager, speaks:
Erling trained a bit yesterday but we spoke and he said he didn’t feel good. He is massively important to us but it is what it is. Hopefully we will stay in the game for many, many, many minutes. We know what we have to do in terms of courage.
Asked if Marmoush will play centrally as a striker, Guardiola simply responds: “you will see”.
Bloody Norah! Pep Guardiola always like to mix things up in crucial Champions League ties and he hasn’t let us down tonight. No Haaland in the starting XI – remember the striker hobbled off in the weekend win over Newcastle. No De Bruyne, although that was perhaps more predictable, even if the Belgian remains City’s best creator. Stones gets the nod at right back over Lewis and Matheus Nunes, it’s the Englishman that will have to deal with Vini Jr (and Mbappé when he drops out to the left wing).
The teams! Haaland on the City bench!
Real Madrid: Courtois, Valverde, Asencio, Rudiger, Mendy, Tchouameni, Ceballos, Rodrygo, Bellingham, Vinicius Junior, Mbappe.
Subs: Lunin, Mestre, Alaba, Camavinga, Modric, Guler, Endrick, Lucas, Vallejo, Garcia, Diaz.
Manchester City: Ederson, Stones, Khusanov, Dias, Gvardiol, Savinho, Gonzalez, Gundogan, Foden, Silva, Marmoush.
Subs: Ortega, Carson, Ake, Kovacic, Haaland, Grealish, Doku, De Bruyne, Matheus Nunes, Lewis, McAtee.
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The Bernabéu roof is closed for this game. Woof.
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As ever, Sid Lowe has done a fine job of setting up this Real Madrid clash. And as ever, Madrid have given him something to write about.
A bit more background here:
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There’s also a tasty Premier League clash starting shortly, featuring the league leaders as Liverpool travel to Aston Villa. Marcus Rashford v Trent Alexander-Arnold, if you will.
You can follow that one live right here, it’s a 7.30pm GMT kick-off.
Preamble
This game doesn’t need too much of a sell. It’s Real Madrid v Manchester City, for goodness sake. It’s Pep Guardiola, Barcelona legend, at the Bernabéu. Carlo Ancelotti’s eyebrow is tantalisingly poised. Aside from Real and City, no other club has laid their hands on Ol’ Big Ears, the Champions League trophy, in four years. YOU WANT NARRATIVE? YOU GOT IT.
It really doesn’t get any bigger than this, particularly at the playoff round stage. It seems bizarre that this is effectively a qualifier for the round of 16, rather than a semi-final (remember this?) or a final. But that’s these two get for an underwhelming league phase.
Of course, Real Madrid are favourites. They practically own this competition, having claimed six of the past 11 titles on offer. They are at home and hold a 3-2 first-leg lead, which helps. But nobody thinks City are out of it. It might only takes one moment from Erling Haaland, one ridiculous cross from Kevin De Bruyne, one mazy Phil Foden dribble and shot and the whole tie could turn.
As a coach at the Bernabéu, Guardiola’s Barcelona team defeated Real Madrid in the 2011 Champions League semi-final and put six past them in their most resonant victory in La Liga. However, having lost the first leg 3-2 at home last week, none of the results he has secured here as City manager would be sufficient to see them through and after the first leg he said they had only a 1% chance. Carlo Ancelotti said he did not buy that, dismissing suggestions that Madrid’s chances stood at 99%, and claiming he would ask Guardiola if he really believed that his hopes were so small.
The mind games are well underway. It promises to be an absolutely delicious night of association football.
Kick-off: 8pm GMT, 9pm in Madrid.
