The Daily Telegraph - Sport

Guardiola’s double-treble dream ends after twin penalty pain

There are ways of losing, and Pep Guardiola made clear that this one, in a game his team dominated, in a shoot-out they threw away, was acceptable and that he had made his peace with it.

Over 120 minutes and the generous time added on in all four periods of this Champions League quarter-final second leg, so Manchester City largely ran Real Madrid the way they do their weekly Premier League opposition. They had twice as much possession, and 33 attempts on the Real goal compared to eight in return and for most of it one felt that the decisive goal was coming. Long before the referee ended it all and obliged both sides to choose their five penalty takers, tired Real legs were defending the very edge of their penalty area.

It will, for now perhaps, comfort Guardiola that his players gave everything in the defence of the Champions League they won last June.

Effusive in his praise he said they had done all they could – apart from score one more. Kevin De Bruyne had equalised in the second half following Rodrygo’s early goal that had tipped the tie in Real’s favour, and after that one expected City to finally grind down the last of the resistance. That, indeed, is what these great players are supposed to do. Yet there was a lingering doubt – why indeed had they not?

Neither Erling Haaland nor De Bruyne were still on the pitch by the penalty shoot-out, the former having been substitute­d before the start of extra-time. Guardiola would later say that both of them, as well as Manuel Akanji, had requested their own substituti­ons. For Haaland it was the kind of night where he had been expected to be decisive. He was the player Real had courted years before his 2022 move to City, and yet he felt peripheral for much of it – with the exception of one first-half header against the bar. The game was dominated by the usual cast of characters – Rodri, Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden and De Bruyne. None could apply the final blow, and one naturally looks to the goalscorer when that breaks down.

Guardiola was, neverthele­ss, not pointing fingers. With no Haaland and no De Bruyne it turned out that on Guardiola’s list of penalty takers, Ederson, his goalkeeper back for just his second start after injury, was No 5. By then Ederson was taking his penalty to force Real to their last one.

City were 3-2 behind when Ederson scored to make it 3-3 – their shoot-out ruined by a disastrous pair of penalties from Bernardo and Mateo Kovacic. It looked like a complete misfunctio­n from Bernardo for the second of City’s penalties, just after Luka Modric, on as a substitute, had unexpected­ly missed Real’s first. Bernardo chipped it straight at Andriy Lunin, the Real goalkeeper. After Jude Bellingham dispatched Real’s second, Kovacic did little better with a strike to Lunin’s right and for the

first time, Real could see the light at the end of the tunnel.

This time last year, City appeared to have effected some kind of Champions League shift of power with a 4-0 second leg win over Real at home in the semi-finals. Now that feels like it may only have been temporary. It is Bellingham who will face his England team-mate Harry Kane at Bayern Munich in the semi-finals. Jadon Sancho is still there with Borussia Dortmund. But the English club interest in the competitio­n is over.

The Real goal was worth revisiting. It felt so long ago as almost to belong to a different game by the time Antonio Rudiger converted the winning 10th penalty. They were exploiting the space behind City’s back four and the Real goal was beautifull­y made.

The ball from Dani Carvajal hung up long enough for one to wonder just what Bellingham’s touch might be like on a loopy flight that offered the recipient no useful pace or angle. The answer was that it was exquisite. He did not simply stun the ball, he turned it back with the outside of his boot past one blue shirt and then redirected it past another. On to Federico Valverde and then to Vinicius Junior and it was whipped across the goal. From Rodrygo’s connection, Ederson made the first save but could not stop the same striker finishing the rebound. It had been a breathtaki­ng move and City had not been near the ball.

There was the usual strong flow of City chances for Haaland, De Bruyne and others but the goal did not arrive until much later.

With John Stones still fit only for the bench, and a late cameo, it was Akanji who stepped into midfield from defence. Jeremy Doku created the equaliser on the left wing. Rudiger had done a poor job of the clearance that fell straight to the feet of De Bruyne in the area. So much so that De Bruyne could take a touch before he finished to take the tie to 4-4.

There was one more chance for De Bruyne before extra time but these moments were slipping away from City.

Another came and went for Phil Foden in the ninth minute of extra time. Real held on and they seized the chance when, in the penalties, City’s concentrat­ion slipped at last.

Man City (4-1-4-1) Ederson; Walker, Akanji (Stones 112), Dias, Gvardiol; Rodri; Foden, De Bruyne (Kovacic 112), Bernardo Silva, Grealish (Doku 72); Haaland (Alvarez 90). Subs Ortega (g), Carson (g), Ake, Gomez, Nunes, Bobb, Lewis. Booked Grealish, Gvardiol, Rodri.

Real Madrid (4-2-3-1) Lunin; Carvajal (Militao 110), Rudiger, Nacho, Mendy; Camavinga, Kroos (Modric 79); Valverde, Bellingham, Rodrygo (Diaz 83); Vinicius Junior (Vasquez 102). Subs Kepa (g), Gonzalez (g), Joselu, Lucas, Ceballos, Garcia, Guler. Booked Carvajal, Mendy.

Referee Daniele Orsato (Italy).