Manchester City were delighted after VAR intervened to stop the award of a penalty to Real Madrid in just the second minute of the Champions League clash at the Bernabeu on Wednesday night. Vinicius Jr was seen punching the air in delight after the referee pointed to the spot, but Matheus Nunes’ foul was adjudged to have happened just outside the box on a night where City ran out 2-1 victors over the Spaniards.
The defeat puts significant pressure on Madrid manager Xabi Alonso, who has seen his side relinquish the lead at the top of La Liga to arch rivals Barcelona and now drop down the European rankings after losing to Pep Guardiola’s side. Rodrygo opened the scoring for Real Madrid in the 28th minute with a low shot from a counter-attack, ending his long goal drought, but City responded quickly, with Nico O’Reilly poking home an equaliser from close range after a goalmouth scramble. Just before half-time, Erling Haaland converted a penalty after Antonio Rudiger fouled him in the box, sealing the comeback win for City. Despite a second-half push from Real, including a Jude Bellingham chip over the bar and an Endrick header clipping the crossbar, City held on to a crucial victory. The win moves Guardiola’s men to fourth in the Champions League standings, while Real drop to seventh.
But one of the main talking points from the evening will be the early would-be spot-kick, which was controversially overturned by VAR.
Speaking to TNT after the match, Haaland told reporters: “Difficult to come here, it’s a tough place. Game was a bit chaotic, we couldn’t really control it. We get the win in the end, super happy. This is a place you want to play, these are games you want to play. With this new format in Champions League you get to play more games which is nice. I like it. It could have looked completely different today if we didn’t win because of the Leverkusen defeat, this win is really important. Two more games left. We need to finish strong and hopefully we can be in the first eight because then we’re through.”
France superstar Kylian Mbappe was an unused substitute after picking up a muscle injury his absence was clearly a big miss for the hosts. Haaland added: “We know about their injuries, we have some too but they have many. You don’t want anyone to be injured but we expected him to play. I expected to come up against Kylian today. But when a player like that is out – you’re not happy because you want to play the best – but it gives you a bit of a psychological boost. You want to play the best players and after one minute (Raul) Asencio was trying to push me and beef with me which I like personally – I don’t mind it. With Antonio Rudiger as well we have had some great battles, but today he wanted it too much and we got the penalty.”
