MANCHESTER: Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jr. scored twice as the Spanish side eased into the Champions League quarterfinals on Tuesday, beating 10-man Manchester City 2-1 in an entertaining match at the Etihad Stadium to complete a 5-1 aggregate victory.
It is the third successive season in which Madrid has eliminated City from the Champions League.
Vinicius put the visiting side ahead from the penalty spot in the 22nd minute after the VAR judged Bernardo Silva to have handled his shot on the line, a decision that also reduced City to 10 men and made an already daunting task seemingly impossible.
Vinicius, who had just clattered a shot off the post before Silva’s handball, rubbed salt in the wound with a crying gesture to City’s fans.
Pep Guardiola’s men were not waving the white flag however and Erling Haaland levelled in the 41st minute with his first goal since February 11 when he tapped in a pass from Jeremy Doku from close range, but with the tie already tilted heavily by Madrid’s dominant first leg, City’s hopes of a comeback never truly gathered momentum.
City’s Doku and Rayan Ait-Nouri and Madrid’s Federico Valverde and Vinicius had second-half goals chalked off before Vinicius completed his brace with the last kick of the game from the edge of the six-yard box in the third minute of second-half stoppage time.
The Brazilian darted between two City defenders to meet Aurelien Tchouameni’s pass with a volley that Gianluigi Donnarumma had little chance of stopping.
City fans had screamed for a penalty in the first half after what appeared to be a handball by Fran Garcia in the box.
Madrid, a 15-time winner of Europe’s elite club competition, had stunned the 2023 champion Manchester City 3-0 in last week’s first leg in Madrid when Valverde struck a hat-trick.
Now Alvaro Arbeloa’s men march into the quarterfinals and Guardiola turns his attention to Sunday’s League Cup final against Arsenal, while undoubtedly taking a measure of pride in the way his team managed an almost insurmountable challenge on Tuesday.
Reuters