Real Madrid stars lasted only 45 minutes to realize that Manchester City was not even “half of the team” with which they were confronted in recent years.
Real and City could not end in the top eight of the Champions League during the competition phase and which set up a blockbuster play-off for a place in the last 16.
The two giants met each other for the first time last week on Etihad for the first stage, who approached Los Blancos with the greatest respect and refused to pay attention to the enormous misery of Man City in the Premier League.
The citizens were leading during the break thanks to the opener Van Erling Haaland, and that is when the stars of Carlo Ancelotti came a sudden realization.
According to Marca, a large conversation took place in the dressing room of the visitors.
The visitors understood that they did not play against the same city that brought them to the utmost for the last three years, in which they had to deal with six exciting Champions League Knock Knock.
That was when Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius JR, Jude Bellingham and Co wondered: “What are we doing?”
The ruling European champions have previously adopted a more defensive strategy, such as last year when they “parked the bus” on the outskirts of their area in the quarterfinals.
The Spanish champions, however, knew that they could push this team and press higher, because the side of Pep Guardiola was nothing like the rivals they remembered.
Real stars found their opponents “physically bad” when they pressed with “many holes, many holes” and a “surprisingly fragile” defense.
The men of Ancelotti returned to the field and went right to Mbappe and continued to fight despite Haaland's double 10 minutes before full -time when they used things with Brahim Diaz and got the winner through Bellingham during the stop time.
Real used the lessons they learned in the second stage, because they only played offensive football, which was completely different from what they showed against City last season.
The paid dividends when Mbappe scored a hat trick during a dominant display where the side of Guardiola was often unable to cross the line halfway.
And Man City struggled so much that they could not get a shot on or out of target until the last phases of the second half, so Nico Gonzalez scored a comfort goal during the stopping time.
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