Manchester City beat Real Madrid and Pep Guardiola is close to European glory again

Goals from Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus secured a 2-1 win on the night and a 4-2 aggregate victory for Manchester City over Real Madrid. This was Pep Guardiola's best European success at City...

Manchester City are through to the quarter-finals of the Champions League

Manchester City were too good for Real Madrid and isn’t that a statement for the club’s supporters to drink in. The Spanish champions – the 13 time European champions – ousted from the competition they made famous after being beaten at home and away.

That has not happened to Madrid in both legs of a Champions League knockout tie for over a decade. After 18 games unbeaten in Europe when level at the interval, City have now done them twice in two attempts - adding another 2-1 victory to progress to the last eight.

City's first-leg victory in the Bernabeu feels like something from a different era now - a lockdown if not a lifetime ago. Much has happened since then, from the horrors of the coronavirus crisis to the more mundane stresses and strains of a title relinquished.

City had walked from the field in February with a one-goal advantage thanks to Kevin De Bruyne. They were full of the confidence that comes with the most significant European away win of Guardiola's reign, a breakthrough triumph against the continent's kings.

But as the days, months and weeks passed and Zinedine Zidane presided over an upsurge in Madrid's form, any sense that vanquishing the Frenchman from the competition that he has come to call his own ceased to feel like such a fait accompli. The job was not quite done yet.

Robbed of real home advantage against a side that had been looking like the real deal once more, this night was fraught with difficulty. There was no Sergio Aguero for the big occasion and no guarantees - even if Zidane was without his own talisman leader in Sergio Ramos. ทีเด็ดบอลเต็ง