![\"Bernardo](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2022\/04\/26\/21\/57084679-10754419-image-a-88_1651006644588.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\nBernardo Silva (right) celebrates with his team-mates after scoring Manchester city’s fourth goal of the game<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
![\"Karim](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2022\/04\/26\/22\/57085027-10754419-image-a-92_1651007243506.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\nKarim Benzema dinks his penalty down the middle to score his side’s third and cut City’s lead in the tie to just one goal<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2022\/04\/26\/21\/57084783-10754419-image-a-89_1651006761278.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nThe final two goals, scored late, summed it up. City thinking they had the job done, Madrid reckoning otherwise. Both contained an element of luck. When Oleksandr Zinchenko was upended by Dani Carvajal, even Madrid acknowledged the foul and some of them stopped. Not all, though. So there was movement around Bernardo Silva as he took the ball into the area. Among those at rest, however, was goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois. So when Silva shot he barely moved. But advantage had been played. Goal. 4-2.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Yet this is City in Europe. Nothing is easy. So when Aymeric Laporte rose to head away a standard cross with eight minutes remaining, the ball glanced his head and then an outstretched arm. The call by Romania\u2019s Istvan Kovacs, penalty. It looked harsh, completely accidental and unavoidable. But those are the modern rules. Benzema took it. Panenka. Goal. 4-3. What a stage this has set for the return. What a prospect we have in store.<\/p>\n
If Pep Guardiola often cut a manic figure in his technical area it was because he will have recognised, like most observers, that this tie could have been pretty much done by half-time. Manchester City\u2019s two goal lead after 11 minutes was not just their quickest such advantage in this competition \u2013 and the first time Real Madrid had been so rapidly two goals behind \u2013 but came complimented by a series of chances that would have put true distance between the clubs.<\/p>\n
City could have been four, maybe even five up with better finishing and decision making. It was the latter that left Guardiola most incensed. Ignoring a team-mate in a better scoring position is, one imagines, close to a capital offence in Guardiola\u2019s mind. When Riyad Mahrez didn\u2019t look up to spot Phil Foden in the perfect place to score City\u2019s third after 26 minutes, Guardiola\u2019s reaction was as angry as he has ever appeared on the touchline. Mahrez selfishly took on a difficult angle and shot into the side-netting, Guardiola skipped several paces from his standing spot, his eyes wilder, his muscles and veins more taut with every stride.<\/p>\n
Madrid, frankly, did not know what had hit them in those early exchanges. The intensity with which City \u2013 and Liverpool \u2013 can start a match is arguably unique in the English game. All Premier League sides can deliver incredible passion on occasions, but the best take it to a different level. Madrid couldn\u2019t handle them. In this mood it is hard to imagine who could.<\/p>\n
So there were 93 seconds gone when Kevin De Bruyne gave City the lead -as he had against Atletico Madrid here earlier this month \u2013 and what a well-taken goal it was. Carlo Ancelotti would have been inwardly seething at the slackness of Madrid\u2019s defending, but that should not detract from the quality of the move. Mahrez cut in from the right, darting between two snoozing Madrid defenders and skirting Luka Modric. Toni Kroos was also slow to close allowing him to whip in a lovely cross. De Bruyne\u2019s run had not been picked up meaning he got the jump on Dani Carvajal, bustling in front of him to divert a stooping, diving header past Thibaut Courtois.<\/p>\n
City kept possession, kept the pressure on, the high press rattled Madid and, from the next attack, they moved further ahead. Madrid served up the ball which found Phil Foden on the left. He laid it inside to De Bruyne and, from his cross, the in-form Gabriel Jesus spun a startled David Alaba. Suddenly, he had space and only Courtois to beat but it still took a lovely finish to leave the goalkeeper helpless.<\/p>\n
Just six minutes later a fabulous touch to bring the ball under control by Foden saw him take Courtois out of the action again with a ball in Jesus\u2019 direction but he just couldn\u2019t get there and Alaba had to hack the danger away, facing his own goal. After Mahrez\u2019s aberration, a counter-attack in the 28th minute should have given City the gulf they deserved. Jesus on the right played in De Bruyne through the centre and, unlike Mahrez, he knew where Foden was and where Madrid were not. By the time the ball reached the young man he was in an exclusion zone of space, but steered his shot wide of the far post.<\/p>\n
A huge miss. Not least because Madrid\u2019s alarm clocks had at last gone off and they were starting to wake up. This is a side that leads La Liga by 15 points. As Chelsea found after taking a three goal lead at the Bernabeu, once stirred, they are no mugs. To that point, Madrid\u2019s most dangerous players had been City goalkeeper Ederson, whose kicking game was substantially off and John Stones, deputising for two absent right-backs, Kyle Walker and Joao Cancelo, and not at his best.<\/p>\n
Yet, gradually, they got into the game and in the 33rd minute when Ferland Mendy delivered a ball into the box, Karim Benzema made City pay for all their wastefulness. He got in front of Oleksandr Zinchenko and delivered the sweetest cushioned volley, to a part of the goal Ederson simply couldn\u2019t reach. It went in off the inside a post, his 40th goal in 41 matches this season, on the occasion of his 600th game for the club. Only Spaniards have reached that target previously. What a wonderful player he has been, and is.<\/p>\n
As for the second-half, incredibly, more of the same. Just two minutes had passed when Mahrez sped down the right, breaking free of a disconcerted Madrid back line and shooting across Courtois, to hit a post. The ball flew out to Foden who struck it first time only for Carvajal to thwart him as it flew towards an empty net.<\/p>\n
From the next attack, however, better luck. Fernandinho broke down the right \u2013 he had replaced a hobbling Stones late in the first-half, out of necessity not tactical adjustment \u2013 and crossed for Foden in the middle. Carvajal was nowhere this time and his header restored City\u2019s two goal advantage: for all of two minutes.<\/p>\n
More action down Fernandinho\u2019s side, this time the Brazilian being dummied by his compatriot Vinicius Junior, who simply flew towards the City goal, electing to finish the job himself. With Benzema around it takes a brave man to do that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a game of almost perpetual, furious, motion, for one split second Real Madrid stopped. And in that brief moment, Bernardo Silva gave Manchester City the slender advantage they deserved, and that made yet steer their progress to a second Champions League final. Madrid will throw plenty at them at the Bernabeu no doubt about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":20812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3295],"tags":[1962,5304,5891,7034,1725,11583,6096,1911,169,9331,5262,7712,6621,1967,4918,803,1966,5579,7970,10641,9598,500,11268,10560,2626,3874,197,11252,501,8126,12287,422,11973,4082,9605,13256,267,5278,196,432,8709,11259,5470,6965,3306,7419,895,5516,5889,4482,3954,594,5140],"class_list":["post-20811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-sport","tag-atletico-madrid","tag-attack","tag-benzema","tag-bernardo-silva","tag-brazilian","tag-capital","tag-carlo-ancelotti","tag-champions-league","tag-chelsea","tag-city","tag-cut","tag-english","tag-europe","tag-fernandinho","tag-gabriel-jesus","tag-goalkeeper","tag-guardiola","tag-gulf","tag-jesus","tag-joao-cancelo","tag-karim-benzema","tag-kevin-de-bruyne","tag-kyle","tag-la","tag-la-liga","tag-lead","tag-liverpool","tag-manchester","tag-manchester-city","tag-match","tag-movement","tag-offence","tag-one","tag-pep-guardiola","tag-phil-foden","tag-players","tag-premier-league","tag-quality","tag-real-madrid","tag-riyad-mahrez","tag-romania","tag-shot","tag-space","tag-split","tag-steer","tag-the-game","tag-thibaut-courtois","tag-toni","tag-vinicius-junior","tag-wilder","tag-will","tag-who","tag-young"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}