[Sport]Manchester City are holders, but Real Madrid’s kings must still be dethroned

[-HuNTeR-]

er City made reality last spring. On Wednesday the challenge for the holders is to knock the Madridistas out again at the Etihad Stadium, and after the scintillating performance of a year ago there is no sense of inferiority.

By the close of a seismic night at a jubilant Etihad Stadium Pep Guardiola’s team were 4-0 victors, 5-1 on aggregate, a step closer to the treble, and Carlo Ancelotti’s continental aristocrats were heading back to the Spanish capital shellshocked.

This was some display against the 14-times record winners, who were billed by Bernardo Silva as the “kings of the competition” on the eve of the quarter-final second leg, the tie poised at 3-3 after last week’s blockbuster encounter. That was a contest of transitions, anathema to Guardiola’s wish for total control. Yet while he and Silva are aware of Madrid’s potency, the Portuguese points to the significance of the performance 11 months ago, in which he scored twice in the first 37 minutes.

 

 https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/apr/16/manchester-city-are-holders-but-real-madrids-kings-must-still-be-dethroned?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other