Champions League, semi-final first leg – Real Madrid and Manchester City end in a draw (1-1)

Everything will be decided in the second round. Real Madrid and Manchester City parted ways in a draw on Tuesday in the semi-final first leg of the Champions League (1-1). The long-awaited duel did not experience the expected intensity but turned more into a lesson in realism. Vinicius Junior opened the scoring (36th) and Kevin De Bruyne answered him (67th). Karim Benzema and Erling Haaland, they showed little. Merengue and Citizens will decide in eight days at the Etihad Stadium.

This first round quickly took on the expected appearance with Mancunians who put their foot on the ball against Madrid withdrawn into their camp. De Bruyne shot the first arrow and solicited Thibaut Courtois with a powerful recovery from 20 meters (8th). If Rodri (14th) and Erling Haaland (16th) did the same, the Madrid goalkeeper resisted each time while De Bruyne then proved to be of little influence in directing the visitors’ offensives.

Camavinga as a detonator

The Merengue suffered by not hesitating to sometimes be harsh in their defensive interventions like Antonio Rüdiger on Ilkay Gündogan (28th), Dani Carvajal on Jack Grealish (45th) or Toni Kroos, again on the unfortunate Gündogan (45th+2). They are also able to accelerate strongly after a difficult first 25 minutes. Vinicius set fire in front of the opposing cage after a high recovery but Ruben Dias tackled perfectly (25th). On the other hand, Ederson and his defense could only see the damage when Vinicius opened the scoring with a powerful axial recovery after a superb ride from Eduardo Camavinga (1-0, 36th).

City more suspicious

Despite the initiatives of De Bruyne (52nd) or Haaland (55th), Manchester City has generally lost track of its offensive intentions. Pep Guardiola’s players still managed to respond by quickly combining on a high recovery that De Bruyne enhanced with a low axial recovery to equalize (1-1, 67th).

The Cityzens did not insist then and did well by being able to count on Ederson, solid at the end of the match against Benzema (78th) then the incoming Aurélien Tchouaméni (90th). The Mancunians were cautious for this first duel and finally hit less than the people of Madrid (13 shots against 10). They have certainly reserved themselves for the match next Wednesday, on their lawn, where there will necessarily be fewer calculations.