Kevin De Bruyne rocks the Bernabéu to give Manchester City a draw in first leg via IrishTimesSport
Nothing would be settled here, everybody knew that. But at full-time, it was difficult to ignore the impression that City were the happier with the draw ahead of next Wednesday’s second leg. Is the Holy Grail edging nearer? Karim Benzema and Aurélien Tchouaméni would extend Ederson towards the end – the latter with yet another vicious drive – but they could not find a winner.
City wanted to hog possession and dictate the tempo, to pen Madrid back, and Guardiola had to be pleased at how his team settled, all easy confidence on the ball, probing this way and that, establishing their passing rhythms. Madrid waited. They processed the City patterns and they wondered how their opponents were going to get into the areas to really hurt them. Madrid felt their way into the first half, coming to flicker. Rodrygo overhit a pass up the channel for Benzema’s run; Vinícius’s dangerous cross was cleared by Rúben Dias; Benzema almost wriggled free on to a Federico Valverde ball.
City felt a bit of rough stuff before the interval, Dani Carvajal barging Jack Grealish into the advertising boards; Toni Kroos booked for a bad tackle on Gündogan. Grealish reacted to Carvajal, pushing a hand up at him to draw a shameful over-reaction from the full-back. The referee, Artur Dias, did not buy it.
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