Manchester City and Real Madrid played out another memorable Champions League clash as goals from Rodrygo and Kevin De Bruyne forced a penalty shootout, where Matteo Kovacic had the dishonour of missing the crucial spot kick as Pep Guardiola’s side were dumped out of the competition.
The opening strike of the night went in favor of Los Blancos as they stole the lead against the run of play through Rodrygo when Federico Valverde played Vinicius Jr. in behind. The Brazilian crossed to his compatriot, who’s first effort was stopped superbly by Ederson, before he fortuitously tapped into an empty goal after 12 minutes.
Real Madrid lived dangerously throughout the entire match as the home side created chance after chance after chance, creating incredible pressure at a boisterous atmosphere at the Etihad Stadium and the Spaniards had just one shot after the 24th minute until extra time.
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So, as physics will dictate, the more pressure applied to an object, the greater the inevitability it will break and that happened to Real Madrid when Antonio Rudiger slipped in the box dealing with a cross, leaving De Bruyne to fire home from just yards out to level the affairs in the 75th minute in a thrilling encounter.
It was there that the contest was brutally settled via the haunting method of penalties when both Bernando Silva and Matteo Kovacic delivered awful penalties that were saved by Andriy Lunin as Los Blancos headed to the Champions League semi-finals, despite being dominated throughout the game.
Dominant Manchester City somehow fail to win
City had countless chances throughout, such as Erling Haaland’s header from a De Bruyne cross which thundered off the woodwork and fell to Bernando Silva, who was caught unprepared and couldn’t react to the second ball before De Bruyne and Jack Grealish also went close.
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Real Madrid continued to play a high risk game straight from the second half whistle as Lunin was forced to push an in-swinging corner away from under his crossbar, before a well-hit Grealish drive stung his gloves in the 46th minute.
Then Dani Carvajal was forced to clear off the goal-line as the leveller began to feel inevitable at a boisterous Etihad Stadium as countless chances and opportunities fell to Grealish, De Bruyne, Silva and Jeremy Doku before De Bruyne’s 76th-minute goal.
The Belgian midfield maestro then missed two excellent chances in the following 10 minutes, with a well-struck shot just going over the bar before he managed to sky a cut-back in the box from just behind the penalty area with the goal beckoning.
Extra-time carried on in the same vein as the 90 preceding minutes, with City on top of all of the play whilst Real Madrid tried to hold on for dear life as the home side couldn’t break down the away side twice despite racking up 33 shots as the game headed to penalties, where they met their fate.
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