The Citizens’ supporters stoked the competitive flames of this round’s heavyweight clash with a “stop crying your heart out” message to Vinícius Júnior and his club before kick-off.
Much like his reaction to Rodri winning the Ballon d’Or, the Brazilian was left in disbelief as he was denied a penalty by the offside flag, before he played a brilliant pass to Kylian Mbappé whose shot was saved, then Nathan Aké denied Ferland Mendy after Vinícius had touched the ball to the Frenchman.
Having come out of that period unscathed, City took the lead thanks to a wonderful move that culminated in Erling Haaland scoring his first-ever goal against Los Blancos after Joško Gvardiol chested the ball into his path.
In response, Vinícius saw his deflected shot crash against the crossbar on its way behind, but there was still a blow for Pep Guardiola as Jack Grealish went off injured on the half-hour mark after making a bright start.
The chances still flowed as his replacement, Phil Foden, tested Thibaut Courtois and Manuel Akanji’s header flicked the crossbar on its way behind, while Federico Valverde came agonisingly close at the other end and Mbappé blazed his shot over before the break.
Akanji made way at HT having struggled physically towards the end of the first half, but there was no slowing down with Haaland’s shot being deflected onto the crossbar by Eduardo Camavinga.
Vinícius then glided past substitute Rico Lewis and delivered a cross that Jude Bellingham headed wide, before Ederson palmed away Mbappé’s instinctive attempt and the talismanic forward was halted by a superb Gvardiol tackle.
Not to be held down, Mbappé equalised on the hour mark despite not getting the cleanest of contacts on Dani Ceballos’ dinked pass, wrongfooting Ederson and setting up a grandstand finish.
Having teed up the equaliser, Ceballos conceded a penalty for his challenge on Foden, and Haaland sent Courtois the wrong way to re-establish the hosts’ lead.
That didn’t last long, though, as Ederson’s save from Vinícius’ shot saw the ball bounce invitingly for Brahim Díaz to score against his former club just two minutes after his introduction.
Not done there, Vinícius capitalised on the hosts’ indecision by breaking forward and poking the ball towards goal for Bellingham to turn it home, earning Real Madrid’s fourth consecutive UCL win and an advantage to take back to the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu.
By contrast, Man City have won just one of their last six continental contests.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Erling Haaland (Manchester City)