Manchester City will play Inter Milan in the final of the Champions League. On Wednesday, Pep Guardiola’s team beat Real Madrid 4-0, giving them a 5-1 win overall.
Before an own goal by Eder Militao and a late goal by Julian Alvarez, Bernardo Silva scored twice.
Manchester City beat Real Madrid to reach Champions League final vs Inter Milan
After 22 minutes and 42 seconds, Bernardo Silva scored the game’s first goal, which went into the net for Real Madrid.
Before that, Manchester City owned the ball 81% of the time. They had made 202 passes, while Real had only made 28. Two City players had made more passes by themselves than the whole Real team had.
At that point, Vinicius Jr. and Fede Valverde had not yet done a pass. Emerson had found a teammate four times; only two other Real Madrid players had done that more than once.
But the numbers don’t really show how exciting the first 22 minutes and 42 seconds were. City rushed in and threw jabs with the speed and force of a crazy, windmilling MMA fighter. This was operation “overwhelming force,” or “shock and awe,” if you prefer.
Thibaut Courtois made at least one amazing save and played one of the best halves of his life, but Belgium was still down 2-0 at halftime.
After the first goal, Vinicius Jnr went over to Carlo Ancelotti as if to say, “What do you expect us to do with that?” After the second goal, Ancelotti looked off into the middle distance with his hand on his mouth. The four-time winner of the Champions League was completely confused. Real Madrid didn’t know what to do at all.
Pep Guardiola gave his thoughts to BT Sport after the game. His team beat Real Madrid in every way tonight.
“We feel so at ease in front of our fans at home,” said the boss who had won the Champions League twice.
“I had a feeling that we were nervous because of what happened last season, but today we gave it our all.
“Last season was so hard, and people say it was because the players didn’t have enough character, but now that it’s been a year, we can see how special these players are.
Dani Carvajal talked to the Spanish reporters after the game. He said that Jack Grealish gave him a hard time that night.
“In this match, we played against a team that was better than us. “They beat us,” said the right-back for Real Madrid.
Carlo Ancelotti talked about the worries about his future at Real Madrid after the loss. He said, “Nobody doubts. The president was very clear (in public) 15 days ago. There are no doubts.”
On whether the president has also told him privately that he will keep going, he said, “What the president has told me privately, I’m not going to say here.”
Vinicius Junior can win games by himself, but that wasn’t going to happen tonight because Kyle Walker took away the Brazilian winger’s threat.
Walker told BT Sport after the game, “The boys fought hard and kept the ball well, especially in the first half.” The second was a bit sloppy, and we gave the ball away in places where we shouldn’t have, but we won, and that’s what matters.”
He also said this about Vinicius Jr.: “He’s amazing. You have to be cocky like the attacks are and go toe-to-toe with him. I think I’m faster than him and can use my physical strength to win.
