Kylian Mbappe’s hat-trick dumps struggling Man City out of Champions League
Kylian Mbappe scored three times at the Bernabeu as Los Blancos comfortably progressed past Premier League side Manchester CIty
Manchester City were the ones left crying their hearts out, after seeing their European dream end in tears in the Bernabeu.
Needing a miracle in Madrid, City suffered a nightmare instead on a night that will go down as one of the darkest of Pep Guardiola’s managerial career.
But City only had themselves to blame for crashing out of the Champions League play-offs to a Real side inspired by Kylian Mbappe’s hat-trick. Because they picked a fight with the wrong club.
Having mocked Real with that banner in the first leg, over their reaction to seeing Rodri and not Vinicius Jr win the Ballon d’Or, the battle lines had been drawn.
And how Real made City pay, to make sure they were the ones laughing last and the loudest, making Nico Gonzalez’s goal at the death irrelevant.
Poke a lion with a big stick and look what happens? The banner showed Rodri kissing the Ballon d’Or trophy, but he won’t be smacking his lips on the Champions League one come May 31.
City had to overturn all the odds and logic to remain in the competition.
Winning in the Bernabeu, one of the great cathedrals of football, would have been one of Guardiola’s greatest achievements. Which is saying something, considering how much he has won down the years.
City didn’t just have a mountain to climb, because it felt like they had to do it with both hands tied behind their backs.
Not least because Erling Haaland wasn’t deemed fit enough to start the game, while Kevin De Bruyne was also on the bench.
The challenge was that great for a team which had slipped to three crushing defeats on their European travels to Lisbon, Turin and Paris this season.
Recent history had taught us all that presuming anything about these games was nothing but foolish.
But as the all-star cast took to the stage again for another instalment of a game of footballing poker, City blinked first as Real cashed in.
City had arrived as the men dressed in black. But they would leave the Spanish capital resembling blokes with all the gear, but no idea. This was all about those in white, who sensed City were an accident waiting to happen.
Abdukodir Khusanov was picked at right back, but every time he looked up he had either Mbappe, Vinicius Jr or Jude Bellingham running at him.
It was a bold call from Guardiola, but what he didn’t expect was a howler from his experienced captain Ruben Dias, to gift Real the lead inside the opening four minutes.
There seemed little danger when a long ball was punted forward by Marco Asencio, but Dias tried to head it and completely missed, leaving Mbappe with the simple task of lobbing the stranded Ederson.
From the re-start John Stones collapsed to the turf with a muscle issue and had to limp off.
Giving Real a goal start was the stuff of nightmares for Guardiola. He’d said his side would have to suffer, but this was almost too painful to watch from a City perspective.
Real wanted to rub City’s noses in it. They queued up to score, with Mbappe doubling his side’s lead before half time, and then completing his triple on the hour mark.
This was all about damage limitation for City. Salvaging what little respect they had left.
