8-7! The La Liga giants had the last laugh in the big battle between Real Madrid and Manchester City, beating Manchester City 4-3 on penalties away from home to catch the last four of the Champions League. Prior to this, Real Madrid had lost to Manchester City three times in a row, and they finally broke the curse.
In this game, An Shuai sent the Brazilian combination of Rodrygo and Vinicius, and as a result, these two joined forces to attack Manchester City. Only 12 minutes into the game, the two Brazilian stars worked together to give Real Madrid the lead.
Vinicius won the ball on the right flank, and in the face of the Manchester City defenders, he did not break through blindly, and then Vinicius calmly crossed and found Rodrygo who was outflanked in the middle. Although his first shot was saved, he then scored from the back of the net to break the deadlock for Real Madrid.
If it weren't for Kevin De Bruyne, Real Madrid would have seen Manchester City off in 90 minutes. In the second half, the Belgian superstar equalised for City with a shot from a tight angle in the box. However, De Bruyne was unable to save the team, and in the penalty shoot-out, Bernardo Silva and Mateo Kovacic missed penalties to seal a 4-3 defeat to Real Madrid. In the end, he had to be eliminated with an aggregate score of 7-8 and missed the Champions League semi-finals this season.
After this game, Real Madrid set 2 records:
1. This is the sixth time that Real Madrid has eliminated the defending Champions League champion in the knockout round, setting a new all-time high;
2. Real Madrid has reached the semi-finals for 4 consecutive years and ranked first in the Champions League in the same period.
I have to say that in the Champions League, Real Madrid is a god-like existence, even if their strength is not as good as before, but they can still eliminate the invincible Manchester City. It is worth mentioning that Real Madrid has won the championship in the previous two knockouts of Manchester City (2016 and 2022), and now it is the third time to send Manchester City, and then Real Madrid can dream of winning the championship.
It was definitely a bitter game for Pep Guardiola, with Manchester City failing to win against Real Madrid on their home turf and ultimately leading to their exit. In this game, Guardiola once again mistrusted Haaland, the Norwegian genius, still failed to score.
In the 19th minute of the first half, Haaland had a chance to score, but unfortunately his header hit the goal and finally hit the goal frame and popped up, but if Haaland can score, Manchester City will not be out. In both games against Real Madrid, Haaland scored 0 goals. In the eyes of many people, Haaland is currently the strongest striker in football, but his performance against strong teams is really average, and he has to continue to work hard to prove himself and deserve the status of "the world's first striker"!