Champions League
Football spectacle in Madrid: City and Real play 3:3
Toni Kroos (M) and Real Madrid drew 3-3 with Manchester City. photo
© Nick Potts/PA Wire/dpa
It already sounds like an endgame. And both teams show what they can do. Manchester City and Real Madrid are in a tough battle.
Defending champions Manchester City and record winners Real Madrid have already met in the first leg of the quarter-finals Champions League delivered a football spectacle. At the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, the guests from the Premier League missed out on victory after taking the lead twice; in the end the score was 3:3 (1:2). This means that in the second leg on Wednesday next week it remains completely unclear who will advance to the semi-finals. A year ago, Real also traveled to Manchester with a draw in the semi-finals and then lost 4-0 there.
“I don’t feel so satisfied, admittedly,” said Germany national team returnee Toni Kroos on the streaming service DAZN after a game that will be remembered for a long time. “It was a fantastic game,” said City coach Pep Guardiola. “We’ll take the draw with us,” emphasized the former Bayern coach and also paid a huge compliment to his German goalkeeper Stefan Ortega, even though he was beaten three times in the football frenzy at the Bernabéu.
“They will make tapestries for the walls of the Prado Art Gallery for this game. Grandparents will tell their grandchildren about it for decades,” commented the UEFA live ticker.
Kroos: “That will hurt you”
Manchester took the lead in the second minute through Bernardo Silva. But it only lasted ten minutes. With a double strike in the 12th and 14th minutes with an own goal from Rúben Dias and a goal from Rodrygo, the Royals were now ahead in the duel between highly decorated star coaches Pep Guardiola (Manchester City) and Carlo Ancelotti (Real Madrid). “I had the feeling that when the score was 2-1 we had the opportunity to make it 3-1. We let that go. And then of course City score two dream goals. That hurts you,” said Kroos.
After the break, the guests fought back in a remarkable way, and again two goals were scored within a short space of time. First, Phil Foden (66th) equalized with a shot into the corner from around 16 meters, before former RB Leipzig professional Joskos Gvardiol (71st) also scored spectacularly to make it 3-2 for Manchester.
With another dream goal, Federico Valverde equalized for Real after Kroos was substituted for Luka Modric. Antonio Rüdiger played through and also played his part in Manchester’s goal machine Erling Haaland coming away empty-handed.