Manchester City will face Inter Milan in the 2022-2023 UEFA Champions League final after a comprehensive 4-0 destruction of Real Madrid at the Etihad Stadium.
Pep Guardiola’s side produced a world class performance to eliminate Madrid 5-1 on aggregate in the semi-final tie.
The home side showed more purpose and dominated the match right from the blast of the whistle. The English team gave their hosts no breathing space and had a few chances few minutes into the encounter.
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Thibaut Courtois denied Erling Haaland’s pair of headers minutes apart before the Madrid defence was breached.
Bernardo Silva, who troubled Eduardo Camavinga all night, scored with a brilliant shot inside the box. The diminutive Portuguese winger headed in the second minutes later to double City’s advantage.
His goal made him the third player to score 2+ goals in a Champions League semi-final match against Real Madrid, after Lionel Messi (2011) and Robert Lewandowski (2013).
City continued to dominate in every department of the pitch. Toni Kroos, Luka Modric, Vinicius Junior and Karim Benzema were largely uninvolved in activities on the pitch. That was no thanks to the utter superiority of the Manchester City players.
Akanji and Alvarez added to Bernardo Silva’s goals
The goals didn’t dry up as a third goal for City, scored by Manuel Akanji, demonstrated further how much control the Cityzens had throughout the match.
Manchester City have reached their second Champions League final, inflicting Real Madrid’s joint-heaviest defeat in the competition (also 0-4 v Liverpool in March 2009) [Image: @OptaJoe]
Known for his greatness in the Champions League, Carlo Ancelotti caught a confused figure on the sidelines. Madrid’s performance was a complete embarrassment.
On the night, Real Madrid were completely invisible while Manchester City were invincible.
A fourth goal was never in doubt and it came from Julian Alvarez. The Argentine striker, who replaced Erling Haaland, had barely spent three minutes on the pitch before his goal.
With the sort of display Madrid showcased today, you’ll not be blamed to believe this is the end of an era for Los Blancos.
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It remains to be seen how quick the incorporation and development of players like Camavinga and Aurélien Tchouaméni will be. Kroos, Benzema and Modric are 33, 35 and 37 respectively and are gradually phasing out systematically.
The respect will always be there for their absolute dominance in the competition for a lot of years but nothing lasts forever.
City manager Pep Guardiola has become the third manager to win 100 Champions League matches, after Carlo Ancelotti (107) and Alex Ferguson (102) [Image: Twitter]
Meanwhile, City have put themselves in a very great position to finish the season with a treble.
Apart from making the Champions League final, City have also reached the FA Cup final, where they’ll face Manchester United.
Also, City, who top the EPL table, are overwhelming favourites to claim the league title for a third successive season.
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