There was barely any sign of the team that conquered all in Istanbul as the Cityzens were torn apart by the true kings of Europe
They'll always have Istanbul. That was the only positive thing to say after Manchester City's Champions League hopes were demolished by Real Madrid and an insatiable Kylian Mbappe. Pep Guardiola's side were not just outclassed by the 15-times winners, they were overwhelmed by them, both physically and mentally. Watching Madrid ease to a 3-1 win on the night, and an emphatic 6-3 on aggregate, it was easy to forget that these two sides could only be separated by a penalty shootout when they met in last year's quarter-finals.
City's incredible 4-0 win over Madrid in the 2023 semi-final second leg at the Etihad Stadium felt like a very long time ago, and on Wednesday in the Spanish capital, there was very little sign of the team that had emphatically booked their ticket to the Istanbul final and went on to win the club's first-ever European Cup in Turkey. Just five players who started the final against Inter began the play-off second leg, and very soon it was four as John Stones limped off injured in the eighth minute.
Erling Haaland sat out with an injury and Kevin De Bruyne was not even called upon from the bench, the clearest sign of all that the team that conquered all before them and became only the second English side to win the treble has been consigned to the past. Guardiola had said on Saturday that City had a one percent chance of overturning the 3-2 deficit from the first leg, and although he took that comment back in the pre-match press conference, it turns out he was right all along.
His side, in their present guise, are simply no match for Madrid. The serial-winning Catalan is in for the long-haul after signing a new two-year contract with City, but on this evidence he will need to sign another deal of a similar length to Haaland's decade-long agreement if he is to ever see his side win the Champions League again. The scale of the rebuild Guardiola faces was laid bare as Madrid's four-pronged attack of Mbappe, Vinicius Jr, Rodrygo and Jude Bellingham feasted on their fresh kill, consigning City to their earliest exit from the Champions League since 2012.
Guardiola and his colleagues began the squad's reconstruction by spending £180m ($226m) on four new players in January, but it will take far more investment and far more time to reassemble a team that can even come close to rescaling the heights of just two years ago.
GOAL breaks down the winners & losers from Santiago Bernabeu…
Getty Images SportWINNER: Kylian Mbappe
Mbappe finally has his first signature moment for Madrid. He has found form in La Liga of late, shaking off a poor spell before Christmas and hitting a real groove in front of goal. But he was truly immense here, as he proved to be both direct and deadly.
The former Paris Saint-Germain star started in a central role, and unlike in the early weeks of the campaign, when he was accused of crowding out his team-mates by floating out to the flanks, he never really drifted from it. Instead, Los Blancos’ willingness to open up the pitch ensured that he had room to make things happen.
Mbappe buried his first real chance with a delicate lob, saw a second well saved by Ederson, smashed home his third, and delicately placed in his fourth. More broadly, though, this was a footballer enjoying himself. Mbappe pressed when he didn’t have the ball – an anomaly for him – and, ultimately, served as the focal point of this star-studded team while providing the killer instinct everyone knows he is capable of. The Ballon d'Or might not be out of reach after all…
AdvertisementGetty Images SportLOSER: Erling Haaland
Haaland had finally broken his Real Madrid hoodoo by scoring against Los Blancos at the fifth time of asking in the first leg, and would have been relishing meeting his arch-nemesis, the returning Antonio Rudiger, at the Bernabeu. But the knee injury he sustained against Newcastle on Saturday, which was initially brushed off by Guardiola as a mere scare, proved to be more serious than first thought. Haaland was a shock absence from the line up after starting all 34 of City's previous Premier League and Champions League matches, although Guardiola made it clear that he had not made a bombshell decision by revealing that the player did not feel right on the morning of the game.
Haaland was only a substitute in name, as he did not warm-up before the game or during it, casting doubt on whether he will be able to face Liverpool on Sunday. But what is beyond doubt is that Haaland's Champions League campaign is over and he will not be able to continue breaking competition records at quite the same rate.
He will have to live without being the youngest player to reach 50 Champions League goals after being the youngest to reach 10, 20, 30 and 40. That particular record will remain Lionel Messi's until a new pretender emerges. Haaland is also set to fall way behind Mbappe in the race to eventually overtake Cristiano Ronaldo as the competition's all-time top scorer, as he will remain on 49 goals until the start of next season's League Phase (presuming City qualify), while Mbappe moved on to 55 with his hat-trick.
But Wednesday was not really about individual records; it was about the stage of Europe's greatest competition. Mbappe utterly owned it, while Haaland could only watch on from the sidelines.
Getty Images SportWINNER: Florentino Perez
Madrid's second goal was the kind of moment Florentino Perez would have been dreaming of the moment he finally got the deal to sign Mbappe over the line. Bellingham picked up the ball in midfield, and played an excellent through ball into the path of the flying Vinicius. The Brazilian then squared it across the edge of the penalty area, who in turn took Abdukodir Khusanov out of the game and laid it on for Mbappe. The French forward then sent Josko Gvardiol out of the stadium before planting a finish in the bottom corner.
A flowing team goal created and finished off by the members of Perez's new 'Fab Four' was the vision the Madrid president would have had when he decided to add to Mbappe to his already stacked attack, and while there were certainly teething problems in the early months of the season, Los Blancos' forward line is clearly now clicking into gear just as the Champions League knockouts begin to heat up.
Perez's first iteration of the Galacticos was criticised for the lack of trophies it returned, but the early signs are that things might be different this time around.
Getty Images SportLOSER: City's hapless defence
It could be argued that City lost the tie the moment Manuel Akanji pulled up injured at the end of the first half at the Etihad last week. From then on, Guardiola's defence began to shake. And after a just few minutes at the Bernabeu, the floor began to give way.
The experienced and astute Swiss was a crucial piece in the treble-winning team, and his replacement, Rico Lewis, was bullied in the second half of the first leg before eventually giving the ball away to Vinicius in the build-up to the late third goal. Lewis' dismal display meant that Guardiola picked Abdukodir Khusanov ahead of him in Spain, but the Uzbek was simply not cut out for an occasion of this magnitude against such devastating opposition. The 20-year-old, who was making his first-ever Champions League start, was cut to ribbons by Vinicius and got very little support.
Ruben Dias, normally City's defensive leader, had set the tone for their night of misadventures by bungling a simple cut out, which allowed Mbappe to meet Raul Asencio's pass and lob Ederson. The dominoes truly began to fall as Stones was taken off injured moments later.
It was not long before Madrid sliced their way though City, as Mbappe manoeuvered his way around Khusanov and then sent Gvardiol on to his back and sliding all the way back to Manchester. It was little wonder then that when Mbappe picked the ball up in the second half and made his way towards goal to complete his hat-trick, no one even bothered to block his path.
The good news for City is that they will not have to face Madrid again for another year. The bad news is that this patched up, frail defence will be coming up against Mohamed Salah and Liverpool on Sunday…