Manchester City 4-0 Real Madrid (5-1 agg)
by James Nalton
at City of Manchester Stadium

MANCHESTER CITY breezed past Real Madrid to reach their second-ever European Cup final, where they hope to win it for the first time. 

This Man City team feels more complete than previous ones. Not in the sense of being really good at football—all of Pep Guardiola’s City teams have been really good at football—but in the sense there is an extra edge not present in previous City teams.

One player from those previous incarnations who has some of this edge and added fight is Bernardo Silva.

It was his movement, combined with Kevin De Bruyne’s pass, that was able to unlock the Real Madrid defence and begin City’s march to the final.

They didn’t even need Erling Haaland to score on this occasion, but they still require his presence and his own edge.

The Norwegian striker can regularly be seen trying to rouse the crowd at Eastlands. A crowd that by City fans’ own admission can be on the staid side. But there was not much encouragement needed for fans to get up for this biggest-ever City game of the post-Maine Road era. Arguably their biggest of nay era.

For once, Real Madrid looked lost with how to cope with one of these English upstarts. 

Having seen off Chelsea, City, and Liverpool on their way to winning the trophy last season, and Liverpool and Chelsea again this year, they finally met their match in the shape of this latest City upgrade.

When Silva headed in his second, there didn’t seem a way back in for Real given how they had performed until that point.

Manuel Akanji headed City’s third, and even as the home side made changes they continued to dominate. With Haaland, De Bruyne, and Gundogan all off the pitch, Phil Foden found Julian Alvarez to make it four, and 5-1 on aggregate.

Internazionale await City in the final in Istanbul, and though this is the one trophy that has evaded Guardiola during his time at City, it would take an extraordinary effort for the Milan side to stop them from claiming it this year.