Man City beat Real in epic UCL semifinal first leg

Manchester Metropolis just couldn't shake off Real Madrid, merely the Premier League side has a narrow advantage going into the second leg of their Champions League semi-finals after a brilliant home run into.

In a wild match that resembled a basketball game game at times, City beat Madrid 4-3 in the first leg of the semi-finals just will get out the City of Manchester Stadium wondering how the record 13-fourth dimension champions were notwithstanding in information technology.

Ultimately, Karim Benzema's cheeky "Panenka" penalization in the 82nd minute saw Madrid escape with some hope of pulling off a comeback in side by side week's second leg at Santiago Bernabeu.

Urban center, looking to reach the terminal for a second straight year, went ii-0 ahead after 11 minutes — through goals by Kevin De Bruyne and Gabriel Jesus — and should have been further clear before Benzema steered in a volley off the post in the 33rd.

Phil Foden restored Urban center'due south two-goal lead in the 53rd, Vinicius Inferior replied two minutes later for Madrid, and the chances kept coming for both teams before Bernardo Silva curled a shot inside the near postal service after the referee played the advantage following a foul on Oleksandr Zinchenko.

Benzema had the last say on the nighttime by converting a penalty later on Aymeric Laporte's handball — it made the French star striker the competition's top scorer on fourteen goals and proceed the best scoring form of his career, with 40 in all competitions this season.

Real Madrid passenger vehicle Carlo Ancelotti lost v-0 in his nigh contempo visit to Manchester — with Everton on the final twenty-four hours of last season's Premier League — and City could hands have scored many more, powered past its spectacular starting time.

With Madrid fielding a brawl-playing midfield — of Luka Modric, Toni Kroos and Federico Valverde — that lacked the bite of injured Casemiro, Urban center cut through the visitors at volition.

De Bruyne's late run through the middle wasn't picked upwards and he stooped to caput in, via his left shoulder, an inswinging cross past Mahrez later on barely ninety seconds.

When Jesus turned David Alaba with ease following De Bruyne's ball into the middle and slipped habitation a terminate, the stadium erupted once more and Ancelotti flung his arms into the air.

Jesus, fresh off a iv-goal haul confronting Watford on Sat, was a abiding threat — Alaba couldn't handle him and was substituted at half-time — and Mahrez was being given and so much space down the right.

The winger squandered 2 gilt-edged chances that left Guardiola enraged, the first in the 26th minute when he swung wildly when one-on-one with goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and hit the sidenetting, and then simply subsequently the restart when he raced through once again and curled against the mail service.

In betwixt, Benzema had gotten his now-customary goal in the Champions League, clipping a volley in off the postal service from Ferland Mendy'due south cantankerous in the 33rd and City was living dangerously at times — specially goalkeeper Ederson when he dallied on the ball.

The 2d half was just every bit chaotic, and the goals kept coming.

Metropolis re-established its two-goal lead in the 53rd when Foden headed home a cross from Fernandinho, the 36-year-one-time club helm who came on at right back for the injured John Stones.

Back came Madrid, with Vinicius turning Fernandinho — showing his fallibility in an unfamiliar position — near the halfway line and sprinting downwardly the left before cut in and placing a shot beyond Ederson.

Bernardo's goal owed as much to the quick-wittedness of referee Istvan Kovacs as the Portugal midfielder's own brilliant finishing and it looked every bit if Metropolis was finally going to take a two-goal atomic number 82 to Madrid.

Then Laporte glanced the ball off his head and onto his flailing arm to give away a needless penalty. Benzema kept his composure while all around him were losing theirs, giving Madrid renewed belief of reaching a showtime last since 2018.

Afterward an opening xc minutes of epic proportions, the necktie is now tantalisingly poised going into the return leg in Madrid.

For manager Pep Guardiola, whose squad has taken all before information technology in domestic football with iii Premier League crowns and a number of cups, the one thing missing from his CV at Manchester City is a Champions League bays to become with the 2 he won coaching Barcelona.

He and his team are one pace closer — just they volition know that they have to get a result at the Bernebeu for a gamble to fill up that gap.

AP/ABC