Manchester City were dumped out of the Champions League after a display of world-class finishing from Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe.
Mbappe scored a brilliant hat-trick to power the holders to a 3-1 victory in the second leg of their play-off tie against City on Wednesday and an overall 6-3 aggregate success.
Without the injured Erling Haaland, City laboured under the closed roof at the magnificently remodelled Bernabeu Stadium and barely troubled the Mbappe-inspired hosts.
Nico Gonzalez did pull one back in added time after an Omar Marmoush free-kick hit the bar but the contest was long since over with the night belonging to Mbappe.
THE MAN OF THE MATCH. pic.twitter.com/Eg4o5Zpx25
— Real Madrid C.F. 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@realmadriden) February 19, 2025
The French World Cup-winner was at his ruthless best, striking in the fourth minute and adding two more either side of the break, as City’s lacklustre challenge in Europe’s elite competition came to a tame end.
It was their earliest exit since failing to progress from the group stage in 2012-13 and was another blow in what has been an underwhelming season.
From Real’s point of view, it was a strong warning to rest of Europe that, after their own sluggish start and some recent domestic wobbles, they remain strong contenders to win a record-extending 16th title.
City’s night began dreadfully as top scorer Haaland failed to even make the starting line-up.
Despite manager Pep Guardiola’s suggestions to the contrary, the Norwegian was clearly still bothered by the knee problem that forced him off in the closing stages of Saturday’s defeat of Newcastle.
With Haaland on the bench alongside Kevin De Bruyne and Jack Grealish, City entrusted Marmoush, fresh from his hat-trick against Newcastle, with the chief task of scoring the goals to turn the tie around.
Yet the assignment instantly got tougher as Federico Valverde launched a long ball upfield and Mbappe capitalised on a Ruben Dias stumble to lob Ederson as the ball bounced kindly for him outside the area.
To compound City’s woes, John Stones was forced off injured moments later and had to be replaced by Nathan Ake.
Real sensed an opportunity to put the tie beyond doubt and, after targeting makeshift right-back Abdukodir Khusanov, created a number of chances.
Jude Bellingham headed wide before Mbappe and Valverde both went close with further efforts.
Mbappe had another shot parried by Ederson and then doubled the lead after a sublime piece of skill on 33 minutes.
It came after a fluid move featuring all four of Real’s feared attacking quartet. Bellingham fed Vinicius Junior, who turned the ball inside for Rodrygo to slip in Mbappe.
The Frenchman still had plenty to do but an exquisite touch took out two defenders, including a completely wrong-footed Josko Gvardiol, and left him to plant a shot inside the near post.
With a three-goal aggregate advantage, the pace dropped and Real almost began to toy with City.
Rodrygo and Mbappe both had shots saved by Ederson before the striker rifled in his third from distance just after the hour following a flurry of step-overs.
Mbappe was not quite finished there and set up a chance for Vinicius with a blistering run. The Brazilian’s shot was blocked and Mbappe was withdrawn to a huge ovation 12 minutes from time.
Having had little to enthuse them all night, the City fans broke out into ironic cheers when substitute Mateo Kovacic had a shot late on.
Yet the visitors did manage to get on the scoresheet in added time as Marmoush’s free-kick rebounded off the woodwork for a Gonzalez tap-in.
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