Manchester City 0-0 Real Madrid: Joe Hart denies Pepe with super late save as Champions League semi-final first leg ends goalless
- Cristiano Ronaldo was forced to watch from the stands after failing a late fitness test ahead of the match
- David Silva was replaced by Kelechi Iheanacho in the 40th minute after appearing to tweak a hamstring
- Jese hit the bar for Real Madrid, while Joe Hart was in fine form to deny both Pepe and Casemiro late on
- Gareth Bale had a penalty appeal turned down as Manuel Pellegrini's side held on at the Etihad Stadium
- Second leg of the Champions League semi-final take place at the Santiago Bernabeu on May 4
- No Cristiano Ronaldo, no Karim Benzema, but no end to the stalemate for Manchester City. The only thing tighter than this game was Zinedine Zidane's trousers, which he split for the second time this season, apparently.
At least someone got excited then. Manchester City and Real Madrid otherwise played out one of those games that purists claim is like a chess match. Indeed it was. A lousy chess match. One that ends in a stupefying stalemate.
Real Madrid came the closest to scoring with 20 minutes remaining when a header by substitute Jese hit the bar. That Jese was even on, however, shows the opportunity Manchester City spurned.
Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart does brilliantly to stop a close-range effort from Real Madrid defender Pepe late in the game
England No 1 Hart drops to the turf to keep Pepe's strike, which would've given Real Madrid a potentially crucial late goal at the Etihad
Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne sprints away from Real Madrid defender Pepe during Tuesday evening's first leg
Real Madrid forward Gareth Bale controls the ball as Manchester City midfielder Fernando races towards him at the Etihad Stadium
Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo was forced to watch from the stands at the Etihad Stadium after failing a late fitness test
Sergio Aguero had a shot a minute into the second-half that flew over the bar, and that was about it. City had a lot of possession and will take great heart that Madrid did not score away from home, but the away leg will be very different if Zidane's team is at full strength.
Madrid finished much the stronger here. A corner from the right after 79 minutes picked out Brazilian defensive screen Casemiro – one of the game's outstanding players, which says something – but his header was superbly stopped by Joe Hart, with his feet, in the manner of David de Gea. A free-kick for Madrid on the edge of the area a minute later also looked dangerous but Gareth Bale blasted it tamely into the wall.
From the corner, Hart made the save of the night. The corner was headed on by Bale, it fell to Pepe in so much space he was initially presumed offside. A flag went up, then down, and in that split Hart threw himself at the ball as if smothering a grenade. He has had some magnificent games in Europe this season and here was another. Hart didn't have much to do but, what he did, proved vital.
Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany fouls Casemiro as he rises to get his head to a cross from the right during the first half
Real Madrid midfielder Casemiro (right) pokes the ball away from Sergio Aguero (left) as City midfielder Fernando watches on
Real Madrid forward Bale watches on as his left-footed strike curls just wide of Hart's Manchester City goal during the second half
Lucas Vazquez (left) challenges City winger Jesus Navas for the ball during the first Champions League semi-final of the season
Real Madrid goalkeeper Keylor Navas tips over a free-kick from De Bruyne during stoppage time at the end of the second period
So City have at least a puncher's chance in the Bernabeu next Wednesday. Score and Madrid will need two. So this was far from a poor result. It was, however, a missed opportunity. This was Madrid at their least potent, yet they came through with barely a scratch. City have to find a way of putting Madrid under at least as much pressure as the seat of Zidane's trousers.
The loss of David Silva is not the hammer blow it would once have been to Manchester City on Champions League nights, even so what appeared to be a hamstring tweak after 40 minutes could have a longer term effect than a single game. Silva may play no further part in City's season if the injury is as serious at it looked, and the sympathy he elicited from the away team suggested as much.
Yet if the news is bad for Silva it is possibly worse for Raheem Sterling, whose £50million transfer from Liverpool is in danger of veering into 'what-a-waste-of-money' territory on this evidence. Surely he would have been the perfect, like for like, replacement for Silva, an inventive presence coming inside from the left flank and linking up with Aguero. Apparently not.
Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane has an early touch of the ball during Tuesday night's Champions League semi-final first leg
Navas puts pressure on Real Madrid defender Marcelo (right) as the Real Madrid man tries to turn defence into attack
Real Madrid defender Daniel Carvajal (left) slides in to try and win the ball from his international team-mate David Silva
Kevin De Bruyne, who scored City's winning goal against PSG in their quarter-final second leg, is sent flying by a tackle from Casemiro
Instead it was Kelechi Iheanacho's number that was held up – and the warm reception from the home support confirmed this was not considered a maverick call by Manuel Pellegrini. There were no moans, no exclamations of surprise. They wanted the teenager, too.
Not that Silva had any influence on the game. It was hard to name a player who did in the first-half, certainly in a creative sense. It wasn't a dull half, but it was an uneventful one.
Manchester City unable to break down a Real Madrid side that was surprisingly well-organised and content to sit in tight defensive banks; Madrid perhaps content to wait out a draw here and allow the cavalry to arrive in the form of Ronaldo in the replay.
The game missed its star turn, no doubt of that. Ronaldo's return to Manchester was the snap in the elastic and when his name was missing from the team-sheet, City fans were no doubt torn between delight at his absence, and disappointment at the loss of the spectacle.
Former Tottenham winger Bale leaps over a sliding challenge from Navas as Real Madrid push for a potentially crucial away goal
Frenchmen Bacary Sagna (left) and Karim Benzema battle for the ball during a feisty opening period at the Etihad Stadium
Real Madrid's Lucas Vazquez (centre) reacts after having the ball volleyed into his midriff by Manchester City defender Kompany (left)
Silva, who was replaced by striker Kelechi Iheanacho in the 40th minute, went straight down the tunnel after picking up an injury
No doubt he is a huge influence on nights like this. He has played 36 of Madrid's last 37 games in Europe, and the one time he sat out previously, his team went down 2-0 to Borussia Dortmund.
Not that Madrid are entirely shorn of threat without him – not with Bale and Benzema lurking and Luka Modric pulling the strings – but they are missing quite a lot of their fear factor. Ronaldo destroyed Wolfsburg in the previous round, and obviously could have done the same here. He sat on the sidelines, almost distracted. He plays as if starring in an A-list film, and he clearly didn't enjoy this B movie.
Madrid offered little without him, too, Hart untroubled in the first 45 minutes, Madrid's routes to goal pedestrian aside from the odd spark of invention from Modric.
The one time they tried something different was in the second minute when Bale took a very quick, un-Spanish, long throw-in on the right, catching Manchester City by surprise and winning a corner. It was a sliver of Premier League spirit exported to Madrid, but much of the rest was one-paced.
Real Madrid goalkeeper Keylor Navas, who almost joined Manchester United last summer, tries to stop the ball going out of play
City supporters have a complicated relationship with the Champions League, but they helped create a special atmosphere before kick-off
Not that City dazzled. Kevin De Bruyne is the key to it these days and he saw plenty of the ball but to little effect. In the 23rd minute, he found Aguero who completed a neat turn to take up a good position, but Madrid goalkeeper Keylor Navas read it well, and kicked clear.
A minute later Pepe was rightly booked for a spectacularly late and rash challenge on De Bruyne, and howls of outrage greeted a lunge by Sergio Ramos that took out Fernandinho soon after. He certainly made contact on his follow through, but replays showed he had taken the ball cleanly first and referee Cuneyt Cakir was right to take no further action against the player.
It wasn't a dirty game although, before his disappearance, Silva did manage to get booked for a needless foul on Bale. Like the game in the first-half at least, he wasn't really going anywhere at the time.
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