{"id":547237,"date":"2026-03-18T00:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T00:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/547237\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T00:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T00:11:09","slug":"vinicius-finishes-off-10-man-manchester-city-as-real-madrid-ease-into-last-eight-champions-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/547237\/","title":{"rendered":"Vin\u00edcius finishes off 10-man Manchester City as Real Madrid ease into last eight | Champions League"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn football anything is possible,\u201d was Pep Guardiola\u2019s rallying cry and while Manchester City<\/a> failed to pull off a Lazarus act for the ages, this was a definite one-off wonder of a contest that thrilled all witnesses.<\/p>\n

Particularly, the first 45 minutes of mayhem headlined by Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior apparently being ruled offside by the referee, Cl\u00e9ment Turpin, then onside, which meant Bernardo Silva was then penalised for handball, sent off, and the Brazilian then scored from the spot. Further entertainment also derived from a Guardiola yellow card, Erling Haaland\u2019s equaliser, and a slew of goalmouth incident that mostly continued after the break \u2013 including late finishes from Rayan A\u00eft-Nouri and Fede Valverde that were ruled offside, and one from Vin\u00edcius that counted.<\/p>\n

Cue the effervescent Brazilian\u2019s \u201ccrying\u201d celebration: a playful riposte to City fans who at Madrid\u2019s last visit showed a banner reading \u201cStop crying your heart out\u201d after Rodri won the 2024 Ballon d\u2019Or<\/a> ahead of him.<\/p>\n

The bottom line is this: City were unable to overturn the 3-0 first-leg deficit and so are out, and Real Madrid<\/a> through to the quarter-finals. Guardiola offered a proud verdict \u2013 \u201cthe future is bright\u201d \u2013 but should rue how open his side were, particularly at the Bernab\u00e9u.<\/p>\n

To prosper City required a comeback as scintillating as the 2011-12 title-clinching win over QPR yet Guardiola\u2019s lineup was less adventurous than last Wednesday\u2019s losing XI<\/a>, the directness of Savinho and Antoine Semenyo discarded for the guile of Rayan Cherki and Tijjani Reijnders. Marc Gu\u00e9hi and Nico O\u2019Reilly were also out \u2013 and Matheus Nunes and A\u00eft-Nouri in.<\/p>\n

When Valverde spurned a gilded chance to score a fourth of the tie when through inside the opening 60 seconds this ignited a chaotic period.<\/p>\n

After this letoff, City went close to pulling one back. Flooding Madrid\u2019s area, piledrivers from Cherki and Rodri were repelled by the excellent Thibaut Courtois and Reijnders\u2019 attempt was blocked.<\/p>\n

The stadium volume was ear-splitting, the faithful urging those in sky blue to continue for the jugular. Madrid hoped to soak City\u2019s bombardment up and quell it. When Rodri slipped, they countered via Brahim D\u00edaz, who fed Vin\u00edcius but Nunes snuffed the danger out.<\/p>\n

Now, the farrago involving Turpin which, with Vin\u00edcius onside, ended in the correct decision of penalty and Silva\u2019s red card. Along the left, the Brazilian ran in and smashed a rocket off Gianluigi Donnarumma\u2019s left post. The ball hit the rear of the Italian on the rebound and eventually came back to the No 7, who fired at goal. Silva, guarding his left post, stuck out a left elbow and blocked the ball.<\/p>\n

From here, total confusion. The video assistant referee considered if Vin\u00edcius was offside and Turpin seemed to raise an arm to confirm so. But, the forward was, actually, ruled onside and the referee ordered to the monitor: he adjudged Silva to have handballed, awarded the penalty and sent City\u2019s captain off \u2013 to wholesale home disgust.<\/p>\n

Bernardo Silva keeps out Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior\u2019s shot with his elbow and is sent off. Photograph: Nick Potts\/PA<\/p>\n

Now, unlike last week, Vin\u00edcius beat Donnarumma, sending him the wrong way, and that was 4-0 overall.<\/p>\n

Twenty-two minutes in and the bedlam continued. Haaland forced a Courtois save, the potent Vin\u00edcius galloped to the other box and blasted over. An Antonio R\u00fcdiger challenge took A\u00eft-Nouri down by Madrid\u2019s D but Turpin took no action, so Guardiola complained to Willy Delajod, the fourth official, and was booked.<\/p>\n

Further breathlessness featured Rodri scooping high after Courtois again repelled a Haaland shot from the left before Madrid, briefly, exerted control via passes that closed with D\u00edaz sitting R\u00faben Dias down, the Moroccan\u2019s effort kept out by Donnarumma.<\/p>\n

The period ended with Haaland turning in, after J\u00e9r\u00e9my Doku\u2019s cross was inadvertently touched on by Trent Alexander-Arnold to the No 9: a City lifeline, however faint, at least.<\/p>\n

For the second half Guardiola introduced Nathan Ak\u00e9 for Reijnders and Marc Gu\u00e9hi for Dias, while \u00c1lvaro Arbeloa \u2013 due to \u201csome problems\u201d, Madrid\u2019s coach said \u2013 removed Courtois for Andriy Lunin.<\/p>\n

The fun resumed, as Vin\u00edcius again was profligate before goal while, at the other end, Lunin stopped Haaland\u2019s low drive.<\/p>\n

When Madrid tapped possession about for at least 30 seconds and the contest slowed this felt strange. It didn\u2019t last: Haaland and Rodri soon took aim and Guardiola, in a gambler\u2019s throw, made two more substitutions.<\/p>\n

Off came Haaland and Nunes for Omar Marmoush and Semenyo \u2013 two attackers for a centre-forward and defender. City pressed more, Madrid unable to administer the fatal blow that would finally kill them off, despite the man advantage, and their admirable spirit had Doku finishing, but he was offside when released by Cherki.<\/p>\n

Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 joined the fray, saw Donnarumma tip over a Vin\u00edcius header, but when Alexander-Arnold\u2019s subsequent corner came to him, he steered wide.<\/p>\n

City ended still posing problems but being 4-1 behind was an impossible task, and so, after Vin\u00edcius\u2019s final flourish, Madrid wandered off far happier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIn football anything is possible,\u201d was Pep Guardiola\u2019s rallying cry and while Manchester City failed to pull off…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-547237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}