Four-star Man City rout Real Madrid to clinch place in Champions League final

Man City is off to Istanbul after a stunning performance

Manchester City may have just outdone itself Wednesday night.

The Premier League leaders steamrolled Real Madrid 4-0 at the Etihad Stadium, taking a 5-1 aggregate win and sealing their second-ever Champions League final. They will face Inter in Istanbul on June 10.

In truth, the opening phases were shockingly one-sided, with Man City utterly dominant. Chances began to pile up: Thibaut Courtois and David Alaba did just enough to fend off Erling Haaland’s 13th minute header, and Courtois then produced a jaw-dropping save to paw another Haaland effort away in the 21st minute.

The Belgium goalkeeper was under siege though, and could do nothing as Bernardo Silva’s powerful finish gave Man City the aggregate lead four minutes later.

At that point, Man City had over 80% of the possession, with Real Madrid managing nothing even close to a shot. However, after finally managing to spark an attacking move, the visitors were inches from an equalizer thanks to Toni Kroos’ long-range rocket.

It was such a narrow miss, and this Man City team is ruthless. As such, it wasn’t all that much of a surprise that Silva responded to Real’s show of life by making it a brace, floating a header past Courtois after a deflection in the box.

Pep Guardiola’s side was truly in control, but it was only last year at this exact same stage of the tournament that Real came back from the dead to take an enthralling 6-5 aggregate win between these sides. The visitors came out of the locker room to offer their best phase of the game, pushing play into Man City’s half and getting their star wingers Vinícius Jr. and Rodrygo on the ball more often.

However, any hopes for another impossible comeback were squelched by, of all people, Manuel Akanji. The defender had not yet scored a goal since his summer move from Borussia Dortmund, but his glancing header on a Kevin De Bruyne free kick — with the benefit of a further deflection off of Éder Militão — made it 3-0 in the 76th minute, and 4-1 on aggregate.

Man City’s dream night didn’t even need a goal from Haaland, who was substituted off with the game in hand. That gave him a good seat to watch on as his replacement Julián Álvarez delivered an exclamation point just before full time.

[lawrence-related id=19238,18331,16092]