This time last year, Manchester City ascended to the pinnacle of the Pep Guardiola era, storming to a famous 4-0 hammering of Real Madrid on route to their first ever Champions League crown.
The mood at the Etihad Stadium nearly 12 months on, Carlo Ancelotti’s European specialists taking a measure of revenge on a side that delivered one of their heaviest ever continental defeats in 2023, could hardly have been more contrasting.
Phil Foden, in the best form of his Manchester City career, never really looked like emulating his thumping strike from the first leg at the Santiago Bernabeu. The England international snatched at a rare chance late on, the ball rebounding off his standing leg and away to safety.
Jack Grealish was positive, full of poise, but proved unable to pick the Real lock. Erling Haaland, meanwhile, was subject to one of modern football’s great man-marking jobs in Madrid – Antonio Rudiger almost single-handedly keeping him on the periphery – and squandered a couple of presentable chances in the return fixture before injury saw him subbed off at the end of normal time.
Real Madrid defeat Manchester City
“It is strange that Grealish, Foden, Haaland (played like this)”, Wesley Sneijder, the former Real Madrid playmaker and a treble winner himself under Jose Mourinho at Inter Milan, said during his punditry role on Dutch publication RTL7.
When Haaland failed to re-appear for extra time – before his injury became public knowledge and the inclusion of Julian Alvarez was deemed to be a tactical one – Sneijder responded by arguing that Guardiola was ‘right’ to remove even his most potent goal threat from the proceedings.
Haaland may have a further 31 goals this season. But the Terminator has shown a few signs of humanity in recent weeks, squandering opportunities he would usually take with his eyes closed.
“He didn’t participate. He really didn’t participate,” Sneijder says of Haaland, who touched the ball only 41 times across the two legs. “But what I wanted to say about those three, (Haaland, Grealish and Foden) they have not reached their level.
“He (Haaland) certainly has not. (And) certainly Foden, the star player last week, did not get into his game. The lines were of course close together, he could not really give a through ball. But he is still remarkable.”
Man City’s quarter-final exit, coupled with Arsenal’s 1-0 defeat by Bayern Munich on the same night, means that there will not be a single Premier League representative in the semi-final of Europe’s elite club competition for the first time since 2020, and for only the second time since 2017.
Carlo Ancelotti will go head-to-head with former employers Bayern in the last four, for the right to take on Paris Saint-Germain and surprise-packages Borussia Dortmund at Wembley.
Pep Guardiola’s Champions League defence ends
“We did absolutely everything. I don’t have any regrets,” sighs Guardiola, speaking to TNT Sports after City crashed out on penalties. “We played exceptionally in all departments but, unfortunately, we could not win.”
Kevin de Bruyne cancelled out another big goal on the biggest stage from Real’s Rodrygo Goes, before Bernardo Silva and Mateo Kovacic missed from the spot.
“I have to say thank you to these players from deep in my heart because of the way they played,” the former Barcelona and Bayern coach adds. “But football is about winning and we didn’t do enough, yet we were exceptional.
“Sometimes you can win on penalties and sometimes you cannot. But in the game we did not convert the chances that we had, even though we defended really. Everyone performed at a high level. We said we would have to be at our best to play Real Madrid and they were.”