Man City’s 20-minute fight – Bernardo Silva cracked his team, Vinicius finished them off

Regardless of their three-goal advantage from the first leg, a clash between Real Madrid and Manchester City always carries great weight. This time, that burden was on the shoulders of Pep Guardiola’s players, who needed a miracle. However, making that task even harder was the captain of the English side, Bernardo Silva, who conceded a penalty and received a straight red card as early as the 20th minute, leaving his teammates with an almost impossible challenge.

Despite that, Manchester City fought bravely until the very end, but a brilliant Vinicius, with two goals, proved decisive in finishing off the Manchester side and sending Real Madrid into the next round of the competition.

Real Madrid nearly took the lead almost immediately, as Vinicius Junior delivered a dangerous ball towards Federico Valverde. A slight deflection off Khusanov sent it perfectly into Valverde’s path, but the Uruguayan failed to beat Gianluigi Donnarumma from close range.

Manchester City responded instantly, and the game quickly turned into an end-to-end battle. Rayan Cherki tested Courtois with a shot straight at the goalkeeper, before the Belgian produced an even better save moments later to deny Rodri from a tight angle.

City kept pushing, with another dangerous attack seeing Reijnders’ effort deflected and brilliantly blocked by Dean Huijsen at the last moment. Rodri then tried his luck from distance, but his shot drifted just wide.

The biggest moment of the half came in the 17th minute, and it was pure chaos. Vinicius broke through and smashed a shot against the post, before seeing a second effort cleared off the line by Bernardo Silva. Initially flagged for offside, the situation quickly escalated into a lengthy VAR review. After replays showed a deliberate handball from Silva, the referee awarded a penalty to Real Madrid and sent the City midfielder off. Vinicius stepped up and calmly converted, giving Real Madrid a 1-0 lead.

Despite being down to ten men, City refused to back down. Erling Haaland came close to equalizing after a well-worked move involving Doku, but Courtois once again came to the rescue with a superb save. On the other end, Vinicius had two golden chances to double the lead but wasted both—first blasting over from close range, and then missing the target again after being set up by Arda Guler on the counterattack.

Real continued to look dangerous going forward, and Brahim Diaz produced a moment of brilliance in the 38th minute, sending Ruben Dias to the ground with a quick change of direction, only to be denied by Donnarumma.

City, however, found their reward in the 41st minute. A clever short corner routine allowed Doku to drive into the box before cutting the ball back for Haaland, who finished confidently from close range to make it 1-1.

The second half at the Etihad continued in the same chaotic rhythm, but with an added twist right from the restart. Real Madrid made a surprising change at halftime, as Andriy Lunin came on in place of Courtois, raising immediate questions about a possible injury to the Belgian goalkeeper.

Despite being a man down, Manchester City came out aggressively. Just five minutes into the half, Jeremy Doku delivered a dangerous ball into the box, finding Haaland, whose first-time effort was brilliantly saved by Lunin.

Moments later, the same duel repeated itself—City capitalized on an error in Real’s half, Haaland got another shot away from a tight angle, but Lunin once again stood tall, while Rodri fired the rebound wide.

City kept pushing in search of a breakthrough. Antoine Semenyo tried his luck in the 61st minute but couldn’t keep his shot down. Two minutes later, the home side thought they had found the equalizer when Cherki slipped a perfect ball through for Doku, who calmly finished at the near post—only for the goal to be ruled out for offside.

Real Madrid, meanwhile, looked dangerous from set pieces.Tchouameni came close with a header from a corner, but Donnarumma produced a strong save to tip it over the bar. Shortly after, Khusanov tested Lunin from distance, sending a powerful shot just wide of the post.

Kylian Mbappe was introduced and nearly made an instant impact, but his first effort of the match drifted wide. On the other side, Cherki remained City’s most lively player, cutting inside and curling a shot inches past the far post, with Lunin clearly relieved to see it go wide.

City’s frustration grew as another goal was disallowed in the 78th minute. Ait-Nouri found the net with a well-placed header from Cherki’s cross, but once again the offside flag cut celebrations short.

It seemed that Vinicius had put the final nail in the coffin for City with his second goal. The Brazilian celebrated it in his own style, drawing a strong reaction from the crowd, but in the end, the entire situation was ruled offside.

However, just two minutes later, the Brazilian finally got a goal that stood. Tchouameni delivered a brilliant pass to Vinicius, who finished it calmly to put the tie beyond doubt and send Real Madrid into the quarter-finals.

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE - ROUND OF 16

Return leg

Tuesday

Sporting - Bodo 5-0 (1-0) AET

/Inacio 34, Goncalves 61, Suarez 78 pen, Araujo 92, Nel 120+1/

Sporting win 5-3 on agg

Arsenal - Leverkusen 2-0 (1-0)

/Eze 36, Rice 63/

Arsenal win 3-1 on agg

Chelsea - PSG 0-3 (0-2)

/Kvaratskhelia 6, Barcola 14, Mayulu 62/

PSG win 8-2 on agg

Manchester City - Real Madrid 1-2 (1-1)

/Haaland 41 - Vinicius 22 pen, 90+3/

Real Madrid 5-1 on agg

Wednesday

20.45: (1.57) Barcelona (4.65) Newcastle (5.00)

23.00: (1.35) Bayern (5.30) Atalanta (8.00)

23.00: (1.30) Liverpool (6.10) Galatasaray (8.50)

23.00: (2.60) Tottenham (3.75) Atl.Madrid (2.65)

***odds are subject to change***