Real Madrid 1-2 Manchester City: Los Blancos lose at home as poor form under Xabi Alonso continues
In the end, Real Madrid threw everything they had forward. Manchester City were unable to hold the ball, all the comfortable passing of the past hour gone. Now they scrambled to stop the white shirts. Xabi Alonso stood at the touchline, biting his lip. Kylian Mbappe, on the bench but not fit enough to actually play, raised an arm protesting something.
Recent history showed that something was still possible. Rodrygo, who four years ago had scored twice in stoppage time to complete a comeback against City, was on the pitch and had scored Madrid’s opener. More attackers had been brought on: Brahim Diaz; Endrick, who had almost been forgotten; everyone except whom Alonso desperately wanted to bring on.
Mbappe had scored four times for Madrid against City, including a hat-trick in the last fixture, but the night was always partly a test of how Alonso’s side could do without his talisman.
Pep Guardiola would have raged after Savinho drove forward, and rather than run to the corner flag to buy time as was most sensible, elected to take a shot. He failed helplessly and Madrid piled more pressure. Luckily for Savinho, despite endless balls into the box the white shirts were unable to summon their traditional magic. Gianluigi Donnarumma rushed out and claimed the last of them, and City could breathe as the whistle went.
Before the start of the game, talk was that losing this game could seriously put Alonso’s future in doubt, which is ridiculous given he had won 13 out of 14 games before his side’s form dropped drastically in November. But such is the pressure of being a Madrid coach.
Senior figures at Madrid, including club president Florentino Perez, had met and had discussions over Alonso’s performance so far, the team’s lack of resilience being one pain point, and another his seeming inability to manage the big egos in the dressing room.
City’s current squad hardly oozes class all over like it did only a couple of years ago, but Madrid themselves were hamstrung by injuries in defence and of course the absence of Mbappe. The opening 45 minutes reflected that sense of two heavyweights sapped of much of their quality.
A cat-and-mouse affair started with Rodrygo creating the first great chance of the game, bolting down the right and squaring for Vinicius, whose clipped ball went just wide. Rodrygo would eventually open the scoring when he again travelled down the right on uber-speed, driving a shot low beyond Donnarumma. Seven minutes later, Nico O’Reilly levelled for City, the left-back lucky to have the ball drop to him, after Thibaut Courtois failed to properly save Josko Gvardiol’s header from a corner kick.
City could have gone ahead when Erling Haaland and then Ryan Cherki fired at goal. Courtois successfully parried both but then Antonio Rudiger, starting only because of Eder Militao’s injury, lost his head and hauled down Haaland as the striker made for O’Reilly’s cross. It wasn’t picked up initially by the referee but VAR alerted him to have a monitor check. He didn’t need more than a few seconds to decide the obvious. Haaland stepped up and converted to turn the scoreline on its head before the break.
The second half was a far more open affair, Madrid perhaps settling better than they did in the first. Both sides enjoyed some good moments. Madrid’s best chance was perhaps when Bellingham got through on the inside right and clipped the ball over Donnarumma, but it went just over the bar.
Cherki’s lofted pass looked like it would be finished by either Haaland and Foden who had stolen through the Madrid backline in the box, but somehow it missed them and Courtois palmed it away. Then the Madrid goalkeeper got down to save after Jeremy Doku turned away from Raul Asencio and fizzed a shot towards the far post.
Endrick’s header clipped the bar as Madrid got more and more desperate to equalise. Things boiled down to those final minutes when the white shirts threw everything forward, but the magic was lacking.
