Champions League round of 16
Real Madrid self-destruct at Man City in the Champions League thanks to two terrible mistakes from French international defender Varane. The 13-times champions bow out of the Champions League.
In fact, Real Madrid lost 2-1 at Manchester City and are eliminated from the UEFA Champions League. The game started pretty badly for the visitors and for Varane… The Madrid defender lost the ball inside the box and Gabriel Jesus assisted Raheem Sterling for an easy goal, 9′. Down 1-0 within the first 10 minutes Real Madrid fought. The team’s best player of the season Karim Benzema leveled the game at 1-1 going into the break.
In the second half, Real Madrid pressed the ball to score a second goal but another costly mistake from Varane destroyed their chances to advance to Lisbon for the knockout stage. Gabriel Jesus intercepted a poor header from Varane to score the second goal and seal the victory for the Citizens.
Reactions
From Real Madrid side. Coach Zidane hails his team despite the loss:
“We’ve got to be really proud of the team and what we’ve achieved. We’ve had an excellent season. The players aren’t happy tonight because they always want to win and that’s the way it goes when you lose.
We’ve got to be very proud of what the players have done because the most important thing is to give your all out there. The opposition had their chances tonight and did well.
In the second half, when it was 1-1, we had the chance to score but didn’t manage to. We’re not going to look for excuses because there aren’t any. We have to congratulate the opposition and be satisfied. I thanked all of the players for what they have done all year”.
From Manchester City side. Pep Guardiola is happy to go through:
“We are here to try to win the Champions League. This is just one step. I am more than happy for the players to got to Portugal. We know exactly which team we beat. We are satisfied.
Of course, it’s important for us. We beat them twice. They have never lost two knockout games. To win this competition you have to win against teams like Madrid, Barca and so on.
When you play against Real Madrid, you realise how good they are. You can see the personality they play with; they are good. When you are on the sidelines and see the personality and charisma, it looks like they are playing a friendly – they play this kind of game thousands of times.
We weren’t keen to defend 1-1. We tried to score and couldn’t; Courtois made some saves – but we deserve to be in the next stage.
We scored two goals from their mistakes. It’s not easy and we tried to convince them to attack, but we are in the quarter finals and we are happy.”
Next for Man City is the quarterfinal against Lyon, who eliminated another contender in Juventus and Cristiano Ronaldo.
