Match Report and Player Ratings: Real Madrid 3-1 Manchester City (Agg: 6-3) (UEFA Champions League Last-16 Play-Off Second-Leg) | OneFootball

Manchester City’s 2024/25 UEFA Champions League journey has come to an end after Real Madrid strolled to an embarrassingly easy victory in the Last-16 Play-Off.

The Blues knew they’d need to be perfect to stand a chance of progressing but those hopes were ended almost immediately when Kylian Mbappe drifted free and dinked in the opener, and the Frenchman essentially ended the tie when he made it 2-0 after half an hour.

Madrid were easily the better team without needing to produce anything like their best, and rubber-stamped their authority with Mbappe’s hat-trick in the second half, gleefully seeing out Manchester City’s European exit thereafter despite a last-minute Nico goal.

The match wasn’t even five minutes old when Real Madrid doubled their advantage in the tie, as it was child’s play for Raul Asencio to knock a long ball under no pressure for Mbappe to run onto, and the Frenchman shrugged off a weak challenge from Ruben Dias and lobbed a static Ederson to give the holders the ideal start.

City’s nightmare beginning got worse when John Stones was forced off injured soon after.

Madrid seemed to find Manchester City’s attempts at pressure no more than a minor inconvenience, reaching the final third at will, totally dominating the first half-hour and ending the tie already with their second of the night.

City were cut through like they weren’t there and Rodrygo nutmegged Abdukodir Khusanov in the box, allowing Mbappe to chop past Josko Gvardiol as if he wasn’t there and beat Ederson with ease for 5-2 on aggregate.

The teams seemed to settle for the scoreline until half-time, but it was more of the same at the start of the second-half as Rodrgyo’s shot was beaten away by Ederson and Ruben Dias was required to clear away a wicked cross from Federico Valverde from right in front of his goal.

Mbappe was playing with arrogance and assuredness and looked nailed on for a hat-trick when he reached another beautiful Valverde delivery just before the hour mark, although Ederson managed to deny him with a point-blank save.

But it was mere seconds after 60 minutes had elapsed when the Frenchman did grab his treble, as he advanced into the City area with ridiculous ease to crack a left-footed drive into the bottom corner.

City finally managed efforts on target in the closing stages, and should have had a penalty if VAR had bothered to see that Brahim Diaz’s foul on James McAtee was inside the area, but in truth their greatest achievement on the night was managing not to concede further goals when it had the look of getting ugly at 3-0 with half an hour to go.

That’s despite a last-minute goal from Nico, which will probably go down as the most consolatory and least-celebrated goal of all time despite being his first for the club.

The 2023 Champions League winners are now out, and they’ll need to sharpen up ahead of another potentially dangerous game against Liverpool on Sunday. Here’s how we rated the players’ individual performances in their final Champions League match of 2024/25!

Player Ratings

Starting XI

Ederson – 4.5

Didn’t face too many shots on target despite Madrid’s dominance, although was caught in no-man’s-land by Kylian Mbappe on the opener. Can’t be blamed for the subsequent concessions.

Abdukodir Khusanov – 4

Would have been wary after Vinicius Jr skipped past him in their first duel, and it was a sign of things to come as Madrid players were continually allowed to run directly at him with no cover. Offered an outlet out wide but had a night to forget, like most of his teammates.

John Stones – N/A

Get well soon, John!

Ruben Dias – 5 (MOTM)

Endured a far-from-ideal start as Kylian Mbappe got the march on him and he couldn’t reach the ball with a desperate attempted clearance. Struggled with his ball-playing but was at times the only thing keeping the score down with some vital interventions in the area.

Josko Gvardiol – 3.5

Sent for a paella by Kylian Mbappe, having dived in to try to prevent the second goal. Couldn’t produce any of trademark industry in the defensive or attacking thirds.

Nico – 3.5

Will give him an idea of the pace he needs to get up to in order to fix this Manchester City midfield, if nothing else. Below par on and off the ball, regardless of his awareness to follow in for his first goal for the club.

Ilkay Gundogan – 3.5

Sad to see the midfield metronome of years gone by, one of the biggest factors in City’s dominance of big games for so many years, comprehensively bypassed so often.

Bernardo Silva – 3

Attempted to get City controlling the game by dropping into the backline and playing out, but it didn’t stop the ball coming straight back in Real Madrid possession most of the time. Looked a spent force worryingly early in the second-half.

Phil Foden – 3

Clearly frustrated in his own inability to get near the game. It didn’t inspire any magic in him though, with some hopeless long-range effort an unfortunate indictment of his irrelevance. Mbappe stepping away from him with ease for his hat-trick will be the lasting image of his influence on the match.

Omar Marmoush – 3.5

His first experience of the kind of isolation which can afflict Manchester City’s central striker in big games. Rarely made any difference on the rare occasion he did receive the ball.

Savinho – 4

Drifted into central areas for the first time in a Manchester City shirt, but was no more effective there than he was out wide.

Substitutes

Nathan Ake – 4

Unusual to see even him flustered in his attempts to clear the ball. Had to support Phil Foden to stop Kylian Mbappe’s hat-trick goal.

Mateo Kovacic – 4.5

Holds the great achievement of hitting City’s second shot on target of the night. It was from about 35 yards out and didn’t come close.

James McAtee – 5

At least managed one decent turn and through-ball, more than can be said for most of the starters.