Real Madrid comes back to haunt City at Etihad

In the first leg of UEFA Champions league Round of 32, Real Madrid have defeated Manchester City, 3-2, at their home, The Etihad Stadium.

This much-anticipated match was scheduled for 12 February, 2025 at 02.00 A.M. (BST).

This was the fourth consecutive time these European giants have faced each other in Champions League, and on the last meeting Real Madrid came out on top after two breath-taking legs, and went on to win the title.

Real Madrid had the upper hand since the beginning of the match, creating multiple early chances. Madrid’s top three was looking to be in good shape and with Jude Bellingham coming in on the attack, Madrid seemed to score at any time.

But the game changed when Erling Haaland scored a wonderful volleyed goal on the 19th minute of the game. And the decisive cross came from Jack Grealish which Josko Gvardiol served on a silver platter for Haaland to score.

From this point of the game Manchester City seemed to have come alive and started pressing and started creating more chances.

Until the last seven minutes of the first half, Madrid was forced to go on backfoot.

Since the beginning of the second half, Real Madrid was looking for the equalizer and showered Manchester City with waves of attack, but City kept on blocking all of those and created their own chances. But on the 60th minute Kylian Mbappe did exactly what he was expected to do in Real Madrid, he scored a volley to level the scores from a forward cross by Daniel Ceballos.

Still, it was anyone’s game as both the teams kept on pushing for the decisive goal which could have sealed their win.

And on the 80th minute of the game Ceballos gave away a penalty by committing a foul just inside the penalty box. And the Penalty was calmly converted by Erling Haaland, Manchester City made it 2-1, and seemed to have won the first leg.

But Madrid had other plans, just as always, Madrid came back from nothing. Super-sub Brahim Diaz came on the field and almost instantly scored at the 86th minute to level this intense game once again.

Real Madrid was still not done. Just when Manchester City thought that they had to settle for a draw and it almost seemed certain as almost half of the added extra time was gone.

On the 91st minute, Vinicius Jr. showed his magic and intercepted the ball to open an attack for Madrid and as City’s goalkeeper Ederson Moraes charged Vini, he chipped the ball for a cross to Jude Bellingham who scored the decisive and match winning goal for Real Madrid, making it 3-2.

With this goal, Real Madrid walked away champions from The Etihad Stadium, defeating Manchester City on their own soil, and they went into the second leg having one goal advantage, which is scheduled for 20th February, at 02.00 A.M. (BST) in Santiago Bernabeu.  

Real Madrid have yet again defeated Manchester City in UEFA Champions League and have shown that when its Champions League and its Real Madrid, you can never write them off as they can come back from the brinks of defeat and merge as the Champions.