On penalties, Real Madrid defeated Manchester City 4–3.
The teams drew 4-4 overall and 1-1 on the night.
After Manchester City’s Champions League departure, Ruben Dias was finding it difficult to conceal his disappointment, even though he knew the hosts had opportunities to spare themselves the ugly shootout.
💬 “I’m not even sure what to say. It’s merely annoying. We controlled the entire match. We had our chances, and the effort was there, but it’s clearly a tough one to accept.
“In a way, that’s what they wanted, so you constantly end up trying everything to try to avoid penalties. But we see things through our own lens. We constantly consider our options, and the crew was available. We had a fight. We had our opportunities.
The ball enters the net occasionally and exits it other times. However, we now have to anticipate the remainder of the season.”
Following the pitchside interview, Bellingham basked in even more praise from the passing Spanish.
Predictably, they also serenaded the 20-year-old with a chorus of Hey Jude, which was one of the tunes that had been playing on the stadium speakers prior to kickoff.
As is typical in this sport, the Real Madrid supporters emerged victorious.
Bellingham is pleased that the efforts paid off for Real
Here is further content from Jude Bellingham’s conversation with TNT Sports about the difficulty and relief of eliminating Manchester City from the Champions League:
💬 “Since you gave the game so much of yourself, it’s a relief. You have to put in a lot of effort because I’ve played against them before and they may easily take it from you. By the end, I was completely exhausted.
It’s really challenging because they keep probing you with the ball. You are forced into situations you don’t want to be in. However, we put in a lot of effort and stood tall.
“The game was comparable to the first leg.” A few of us were filling roles that weren’t necessary all the time. I was applying intense pressure. However, you must forfeit your own game, and we completed the task.”
For Man City players, especially those who joined the team last season, this will be a strange feeling.
At this point in the season, they typically just focus on winning, and as we all know, winning produces more winning.
They must now get up off the canvas and keep going with their domestic campaign despite this setback.
Luckily, they are not the only title contenders in that situation; Liverpool must overcome a 3-0 deficit to play Atalanta in the Europa League tomorrow after Arsenal was defeated today.
An English club’s Champions League campaign to forget
And with that, the English clubs’ portion of the Champions League this season comes to a close.
Manchester United and Newcastle both ended bottom of their groups, so they didn’t have the best start, but in their absence, Arsenal and Manchester City shone.
In Munich, Bayern’s experience defeated Arsenal, and in Manchester, Real Madrid’s experience defeated City.
It leaves a star-studded semi-final lineup, but for the first time in four years, there isn’t a Premier League representation.
That pleased Jude Bellingham, who was cool and collected. The Real Madrid midfielder recently spoke with TNT Sports, and he focused entirely on their manager, Carlo Ancelotti:
💬 “I believe that the ability he has to allow the boys to play freely is our greatest asset. Some teams have more planned and structured play segments, but our ability to think on the go and his calm, self-assured demeanor are two of our greatest assets.
“Ahead of the game, I noticed him yawning! When I asked him whether he was sleepy, he replied that I should go outside and get him excited.”
Following Bayern Munich’s victory over Arsenal and the results of last night, these are the current Champions League semi-finals for this season.
Carlo Ancelotti will surpass Sir Alex Ferguson’s record for the most games managed in the Champions League/European Cup if Real Madrid advances to the semi-finals. At the moment, Ferguson is on 202 while Ancelotti is on 201.
These are the stats from the more than 120 minutes played prior to the shootout; maybe it doesn’t matter anymore because the game was decided by penalties.
FT: Real Madrid 1-1 Manchester City (4-4 overall, Real win 4-3 on penalties)
Holding: 67% – 33%
33 – 8 shots
On schedule: 9–3.
XG: 2.73 – 1.40
Large odds: 3 – 3
Duels won by 57 to 70
Loss of possession: 155–128
Man City may be hating themselves right now, but Real Madrid put on an incredible display, hanging in there for the win.
The competition of Real Madrid
Real Madrid has not only won the Champions League more times than any other team, but they have also had the most success when matched up against the league’s champions.
They defeated the holders six times in a penalty shootout, which is at least twice as many as any other team.
Real Madrid doesn’t currently have many records in this competition.
Here’s a rundown of how the penalty shootout went:
Alvarez scored, and City won 1-0. ⚽
Modric failed, but City still won 1-0.
Despite Bernardo’s miss, City still leads 1-0.
1-1 was Bellingham’s score.
Kovacic missed, but it was still 1-1.
Vazquez scored, but Madrid won 2-1. ⚽
2-2 ⚽ Foden scored
Nacho scored, and Madrid won 3-2. ⚽
3–3 in Ederson’s scoring ⚽
With a goal from Rudiger, Madrid wins 4-3 on penalties ⚰
40 million years ago
Hill López-Menchero Tomás
Madrid has won big with that victory. Did they really care that much? They seemed worn out.
Carlo Ancelotti will surely feel his pragmatic approach was vindicated here.
