It never ends like this. For Real Madrid, no. Not for this Real Madrid, the Champions League champions and lords of Europe.
Still, it did. They were severely beaten. utterly degraded. They were chewed up and spit out like they were some muck in the farmers league, also known as the Premier League.
On Wednesday night, Manchester City dominated Real Madrid, winning 4-0 in the second leg of their Champions League semifinal to eliminate the defending champions.
Aside from overcoming Frank Lampard’s Chelsea twice, they had performed admirably to go to the semi-finals despite a dismal domestic campaign. Even after the first leg, their aura and mystery persisted in this competition.
However, due to the legs being switched from their last encounter from the previous season, which saw Man City famously crumble beneath the weight of the Santiago Bernabeu and its 13 European Cups at the time (soon to be 14), the tables had been turned.
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Whereas you usually have to cut off Real Madrid’s head to know they’re well and truly dead, Man City played their Uno reverse card. It turns out Los Blancos should have buried them when they were under the cosh in Spain. They paid the price.
By half-time back at the Etihad Stadium with Man City two to the good, people were already debating whether this was the finest performance of the Pep Guardiola era. The defending champions had barely laid a glove on their challengers, Toni Kroos’ speculative 30-yard drive bouncing off the woodwork the only action completed in the opposition’s half.
Even when Real Madrid had the ball, they created little and couldn’t keep hold of it. Legendary midfielders like Luka Modric and Kroos resembled Gary Neville in his infamous playing-day swan-song, realising that being burned by West Brom’s James Morrison was the end of his career.
This Real Madrid team is no longer the greatest; they are no longer able to rely on intangibles and inevitability, and they require more than simply brief periods of time to overcome obstacles. This fall was less abrupt, but it was still obvious. Karim Benzema, the current Ballon d’Or winner who represented their 2022 run, seems to have been cruelly beaten by an injury-filled season.
Carlo Ancelotti appeared to have saved his job with a Copa del Rey victory (however unconvincing) and this season’s advancement to the Champions League semi-finals, but in the end, it’s difficult to persuade Florentino Perez that you should be Real Madrid manager after losing such a high-profile game by four goals to nil. It’s practically a given that his performance will be closely scrutinized.
Man City, despite the shaky nature of their journey to this point (cough PSG), are at least making the most of every last euro they have invested. Pep Guardiola has discovered a new winning formula, a group of technical players who can keep the ball as well as his former Barcelona sides did over the whole field.
They have become the norm, and given their wealth, it is quite difficult to compete with them.
Jude Bellingham offers Real Madrid some optimism since he appears prepared to reject Man City’s efforts and travel to Madrid instead. That attraction is still there, but if they want to take over Europe once more, they must move more quickly toward phasing out the veterans.
