Tag: Bernardo Silva

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.

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Erling Haaland explodes for second-half hat trick in Manchester City win over Crystal Palace

Haaland’s probably going to score a few goals this year

It seems like Erling Haaland is going to score a lot of goals for Manchester City.

For the second week in a row, the defending Premier League champions came from two goals down to get a result, this time in a 4-2 win over Crystal Palace, and it wouldn’t have happened without Haaland’s first hat trick since completing a summer move from Borussia Dortmund.

Palace raced out to an early 2-0 lead at the Etihad Stadium thanks to a John Stones own goal and a powerful header from Joachim Andersen, and got into halftime without conceding.

Last week, Newcastle lead Man City 3-1 only for Pep Guardiola’s side to come back for a 3-3 draw. This time, they took it a step further, scoring four times in the second half to make it three wins out of four to start the 2022-23 season.

Bernardo Silva got the comeback in motion with a 53rd minute goal, setting the stage for Haaland. First, the Norway striker knifed through the Palace defense to nod in Phil Foden’s delicate 62nd minute cross, leveling the scores.

Man City then took the lead in the 70th minute, as Haaland got the final touch following a stunningly intricate sequence of one-touch play inside the box after a quickly-taken corner had caught Palace off-guard.

Finally, Haaland sealed his hat trick as the game got stretched. Ilkay Gundogan drove forward through the midfield before pushing play forward to Haaland, who held off a defender before powering a shot past Vicente Guaita, effectively killing the game off with his league-leading sixth goal of the season.

“It was a proud moment for me and my family and yes I’m happy,” Haaland told the BBC after the match. “It’s a mentality that we trust each other and we know the chances will come. It’s about keeping going. In the end we scored four goals and that’s a really good thing.”

“We have not done anything special for him that he didn’t do before,” noted Guardiola, again speaking to the BBC. “It is important for him to get goals. He has the sense to score goals. The third one, to have the quality to be strong then put the ball in the net.”

Check out Haaland’s hat trick

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