Manchester City came from behind to defeat Real Madrid 2-1 in a titanic clash on Gameweek 6 of the Champions League to claim their first victory at the Estadio Bernabéu since 2020 and end Los Blancos’ 100% home record in the competition this season. A close-range Nico O’Reilly finish and a composed penalty from Erling Haaland cancelled out Rodrygo’s opener to give Guardiola’s side a memorable night under the lights and continue Madrid’s disappointing run of results.
This fixture has become one of the most competitive rivalries in recent European competition, with tonight marking the 15th occasion since 2012-13 that the giants have faced off. The visitors’ struggles away from home against the 15-time winners are well-documented, and this triumph represents only the second time in eight attempts that City have claimed victory at the Bernabéu.
The visitors’ dismal away record against Los Blancos looked set to continue as referee Clement Turpin awarded the home side a penalty inside the opening two minutes for a trip on Vinicius Jr. by Matheus Nunes. However, the Portuguese international’s blushes were spared as a VAR review showed that the offence had been committed just outside of the penalty area, with the resulting Federico Valverde free-kick being deflected marginally wide of Gianluigi Donnarumma’s upright.
Madrid continued to look the more threatening during the opening exchanges and Vinicius squandered a fantastic opportunity to give his side the lead inside the opening 10 minutes, but was unable to direct his chipped effort on target. The hosts were not to be denied, however, and were rewarded for their strong start shortly before the half-hour mark as Rodrygo found the bottom corner with an emphatic right-footed strike across goal to score for the first time in 33 matches.
Falling behind sparked City into action, and Guardiola’s men resiliently fought back to flip the contest on its head by half time. In the 35th minute, O’Reilly drew the visitors level, instinctively side-footing home from close range after Thibaut Courtois was unable to hold onto a Joško Gvardiol header from a corner. The English side completed their comeback two minutes before the interval, after a VAR check adjudged that Haaland had been hauled down by Antonio Rüdiger in the penalty area. The Norwegian stepped up and confidently stroked his spot-kick into the bottom right-hand corner to net his 6th Champions League goal in as many appearances so far this term.
Both sides could have scored more during the second-half, and Madrid in particular will rue missed chances which fell to Jude Bellingham, who dinked an effort onto the roof of the City net, and Endrick, who rattled Donnarumma’s crossbar with a bullet header five minutes from time. Real’s lack of cutting edge was not helped by the absence of Kylian Mbappé, this season’s Champions League top scorer so far with 9 goals, four of which came in a 4-3 victory over Olympiakos on Gameweek 5. Hampered by muscle discomfort which had kept him out of training the previous day, the Frenchman was not deemed fit enough to make a cameo from the substitutes bench.
Defeat against Guardiola, whom he played under at Bayern Munich, in their first managerial head-to-head means that Xabi Alonso has now overseen a run of two wins in eight games in all competitions for Los Blancos, while City maintain their unbeaten record away from home in the Champions League this season. The result promotes Guardiola’s side up to 4th on 13 points in the standings at the end of Gameweek 6, leapfrogging Real who drop down to 7th with one point fewer.
With their respective sides both occupying a place in the top-8 of the league phase table with only two gameweeks remaining, both Guardiola and Alonso will therefore be hopeful of securing automatic qualification through to the round-of-16 of the Champions League. Next up for City in the competition is a trip to Norway to take on Bodø/Glimt on 20th January, while Madrid host French outfit AS Monaco at the Bernabéu on the same day.