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Manchester City have progressed to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League after beating Real Madrid 4-2 on aggregate. They followed up their victory in the first leg at home, 5 months ago, with another 2-1 win.
Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus scored for Manchester City on either side of Karim Benzema's equalizer to help Pep's men march on to the final 8 in quite comprehensive fashion.
Real Madrid just couldn't break Manchester City down tonight and individual performances were a let down for the Blancos on what has now become a forgettable night.
Manchester City players remained focused throughout and unfortunately, we cannot say the same about the Real Madrid players with individual errors costing them too dearly on the night.
Manchester City 2-1 Real Madrid: 5 Hits and Flops
#5 Hit- Kevin de Bruyne
Kevin de Bruyne wasn't at his unstoppable best and did go frustrated after a few challenges at the start. But he was still able to boss the Real Madrid midfield and came up with the goods.on the night.
The Belgian was excellent at moving the ball forward and kept finding openings for his teammates. He created a whopping 9 chances, 3 of which came inside the box. Real Madrid did close him down quite well in the second half but he still made more of an impact than any of the Real Madrid midfielders did.
De Bruyne proved once again on the grand stage why he is one of the best midfielders of his generation and coming up trumps against a star studded Real Madrid attack will give the Belgian the confidence he needs to go on and be City's main man for the rest of the competition
#4 Flop- Casemiro
Real Madrid was relying on Casemiro to have a good game in the heart of midfield. However, he struggled to hold it down against the Cityzens. The Brazilian did well to step up to the challenge posed by the Manchester City midfielders in a defensive sense.
However, his distribution was poor, he misplaced several easy passes, lost the ball cheaply on occasion and thus ended up disrupting the flow of Real Madrid's attacks. Real Madrid absolutely had to win the midfield battle today. However, the trio of Luka Modric, Casemiro and Toni Kroos failed to dominate the game.
#3 Hit- Raheem Sterling
Raheem Sterling caused a lot of trouble for the Real Madrid defence with his speed and trickery. He was at the right place at the right time to slot home after Gabriel Jesus stole the ball from Raphael Varane and squared the ball to the Englishman in the 9th minute of the game.
Sterling has now scored 6 goals from 8 games in the UEFA Champions League this season. The 25-year-old started the game on the right-wing and despite it not being his preferred position, he still showed no signs of struggling.
#2 Flop- Raphael Varane
Raphael Varane's mistakes cost Real Madrid heavily. It was an uncharacteristic display from the Frenchman and in the absence of the domineering Sergio Ramos, Varane had to make sure there were no slip ups at the back and he ended up doing anything but that.
Varane was robbed in his defensive third by Gabriel Jesus and the Brazilian then passed it across to Sterling who finished to put City ahead. Real Madrid were showing signs of growing into the game and we had a match on our hands until a misjudged back pass allowed Gabriel Jesus to intercept it and dink the ball over Thibaut Courtois.
Varane committed two defensive errors and both led to goals and it is not a night he would want to look back upon fondly or look back on at all.
#1 Hit- Gabriel Jesus
Gabriel Jesus scored a goal and assisted one in the same game for the first time in the UEFA Champions League tonight. Jesus had to work hard but it was his doggedness that gave Manchester City the win today.
After stealing the ball from Varane and pulling it back for Sterling to open the scoring for City, he would then restore City's advantage in the second half after running onto a terribly misjudged pass from Raphael Varane.
