Manchester City welcomed Real Madrid to the Etihad stadium for the second leg of the UEFA Champions league semi final on Wednesday evening after the one all draw in Spain last week.
It is the second time the two teams meet in the semi final of the Champions league with Manchester City having lost the in the previous meeting.The two teams have been among the best in the last few seasons owing mostly to the quality of the players in their squad.
It was however least unexpectedly than Bernardo Silva would be the main man in a field that has Karim Benzema and Erling Haaland. Manchester City had a stellar first half threatening the 14 times winners of the cup. Thibaut Courtous had made two superb first half saves to deny Haaland but the same would not happen to Bernardo Silva who netted twice to give Pep Guardiola comfort.
Bernardo Silva scored two first half goals to set City rolling.
The first goal was a nicely worked team goal that afforded Silva to move in an open position unmarked and Kevin De Bruyne found him just in the right time. A vicious strike made sure that the Real Madrid goalkeeper would not get anywhere near.
The second goal found Silva unmarked to see him direct a free header into the net. A string of saves from Courtous saw the ball bouncing his way for the header.
The second half saw Real Madrid start in high spirits but could not manage to get anything into it and before long Manchester City momentum was back and they got their reward in the 75th minute when Akanji header bounced off Eder Militao and into his own net for three nil.
World cup winner Julian Alverez came on for Haaland in the 90th minute and still managed to get a goal in the 91st minute after Phil Foden saw his run and made an inch perfect through ball which he finished one time.
At the end of the 90 minutes it was Manchester City’s night as they beat Real 5-1 in aggregate after a worldclass team effort.
Manchester City will meet Inter Milan in the finals in Instanbul after the italian based team edged out their bitter rivals three goal to nothing on agregate.It is the second time Manchester will play in a Champions league final having lost to Chelsea the last time they did so in 2021.
For Inter it will be the first final in 13 years .
