Real Madrid 3, Manchester City 3
Manchester City were held to a 3-3 draw at the Bernabeu as Real Madrid scored a late equaliser in a highly entertaining Champions League tie.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe draw leaves the tie on a knife edge for next week’s return leg at the Etihad Stadium and City boss Pep called on City fans to back their team next week after the Blues scored three goals in a Champions League game for the ninth game in a row – every single game this season.
After the late withdrawal of Kevin De Bruyne through sickness, City drafted Mateo Kovacic into midfield to help shield a defence who were missing key player Kyle Walker and played under a closed roof at the refurbished Bernabeu.
But after an entertaining game Guardiola had nothing but praise for Foden who now has 22 goals in all competitions for City and won player of the match for his performance but was taken off as a precautionary measure after what Foden described as ‘a bad dead leg’ following a heavy tackle on his ankle.
Guardiola said: “It was a knock, he was grumpy with me because I made a substitution.
And the City manager had no doubt that the Etihad crowd would once again rise to the occasion as they did last season.
He added: “We will have our people, it will be sold out and we need all of them and their energy over 95 minutes to beat the King of this competition.
“The people of Manchester will be there.”
Bernardo Silva had given City the lead after just two minutes with a smartly taken 25 yard free kick to beat an out of position Andriy Lunin but Eduardo Camavinga’s strike took a deflection off the unlucky Ruben Dias to level the scores after 12 minutes.
And 2 minutes later Real Madrid were in the lead when Vinicius Junior exploited the Kyle Walker sized gap in the City defence to release Rodrygo who capitalised on a deflection off Manuel Akanji’s boot to roll in the equaliser after just 14 breathless minutes.
Despite dominating possession City lacked a cutting edge in attack until Phil Foden was moved into a more advanced wide role and floated inside to level up the scores with a 66th minute wonder strike after Bernardo Silva squared the ball to John Stones who slipped it on to the 23-year-old – Foden’s sweetly struck ball curled into the top left corner from the edge of the area.
And City were soon dreaming of victory when Jack Grealish pulled the ball back to Josko Gvardiol whose heavy first touch created the space for him to strike the ball with his right foot and curl it into the top right corner to put City into the lead with 19 minutes to go.
But it was too good to be true as City took their eye off the ball and Fede Valverde equalised in the 79th minute with a stunning volley – set up by Vinicius Junior – to set up another showpiece occasion at the Etihad next week.