Manchester City ran out winners after starting poorly and conceding first against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu.
The Citizens made it four wins in a row this Wednesday and climbed to 4th in the Uefa Champions League table.
But it wasn’t without a scare. Rodrygo opened the scoring in favour of the hosts in the 28th minute, but Nico O’Reilly and Erling Haaland gave City a well deserved win within the following eight minutes.
For around 20 minutes of the second half, it was Pep Guardiola’s men who were closer to scoring a third rather than conceding an equaliser. Madrid then launched themselves forward down the stretch but it wasn’t enough as Xabi Alonso remains under pressure.
How did Manchester City overcome poor start to defeat Real Madrid?
Real Madrid strike first
Manchester City may have won the game, but Real Madrid jumped them early not only by scoring first, but by also ‘showing up’ a lot more.
Xabi Alonso’s men were playing with more intent and energy, pressing high and forcing turnovers in the attacking half. In fact, three of them came 10 minutes into the match – and two of them in the same sequence early on.
Madrid lined up in a narrow 4-4-2 out of possession to try and block out City’s central crowding of players. As a result, Phil Foden had no impact in the game whatsoever. It also drew the other midfielders wide: Bernardo Silva and Rayan Cherki on the right side, Jeremy Doku down the left.
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It was an interesting chess match between Alonso and Guardiola in that respect. The match was asking for Doku in his ‘old self’, providing width down the left rather than cutting inside.
This was the only way the Citizens could stretch Real Madrid’s defensive line – they did not care for O’Reilly often being free with space to run into, as it wasn’t one of the main buttons Guardiola wanted to press.
On the other hand, Madrid pinned their forwards high up the pitch to push City’s defensive line and enable fast breaks. Their main play was to start on the right and quickly invert to the left, looking for Vinicius Junior in one-on-one situations.
However, they were most dangerous doing the exact opposite: left to right. One led to a Vinicius wide effort and another one ended in Rodrygo’s goal. There would be a third one in the second half, but Jude Bellingham misplaced his finish.
‘Loose’ plays give Manchester City the edge
Real Madrid had all the momentum in their favour and were looking quite dominant. But two individual mistakes undid all their hard work and let Manchester City turn things around before the break.
Thibaut Courtois made an unusual mistake, awkwardly parrying a seemingly easy header to save into the six-yard box. Nico O’Reilly was there to tap it into the nearly empty net – Erling Haaland and Bernardo Silva were also closer than any Madrid defender.
From that moment, City started to find their rhythm and enjoy the game. Pep Guardiola put a lot of bodies forward and occupied the attacking half, giving his side full dominance of the match.
Antonio Rudiger helped by dragging Haaland down inside the box just five minutes later. The Norwegian sent Courtois the wrong way to score the penalty and give the Citizens the win.
The psychological impact of their first goal was such that they even had two great chances to make it 3-1 still in the first half. But Courtois made up for his mistake and performed two brilliant saves to deny both Haaland and Rayan Cherki.
Real Madrid had five of the first six shots of the match until the 35th minute. From then on, Man City would take each of the following five attempts – three of them being clear-cut goalscoring opportunities. They had help to get back into the game, but made the most of their chances and turned it all around in less than 10 minutes.
Strong lead management
Aside from a Jude Bellingham effort in the 50th minute, the first part of the second half was also all Manchester City. Curiously, it was the exact same ‘play design’ as the one that led to Real Madrid’s goal: left-to-right fast break. Pep Guardiola will surely have those on his mind preparing for the next games.
The Citizens managed this early part well, even managing to have more of the ball. Afterwards, like they have been doing recently, they gave up possession and leaned into counter-attacks. This was also the perfect context for Guardiola to use this new approach whenever City have the lead.
He brought on Savinho to replace Cherki and both the Brazilian and Doku had a field day driving at defenders one-on-one with lots of space. There weren’t many of these sequences that ended in shots, but a lot of them happened in dangerous contexts that City just weren’t able to capitalise.
Savinho played just 20 minutes and completed fewer take-ons (3) only than his Belgian teammate (6).
Xabi Alonso then started to make more attacking substitutions in a last-ditch attempt to get something out of the game on pure pressure. There were one or two half chances, but nothing that made Real Madrid deserve an equaliser.
Manchester City completely turned the game in its head after a poor start that looked like it could end in a heavy defeat. Instead, three points at Santiago Bernabeu, 4th place in the UCL table and four wins on the trot.