Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
- Another all Madrid Champions League Final it is then
- That’s due to Real’s 1-0 win over Manchester City at The Bernabeu last night but in fairness it could have been a lot more
- City were disappointing and to a certain degree didn’t really turn up, well not in attack anyway
- Credit must go to Joe Hart again for keeping the score respectable and giving City the slightest chance of somehow nicking a result
- But it was the worst possible start for Manuel Pellegrini as Vincent Kompany once again had to come off through injury. Pellegrini will now be waiting to see if Kompany will be available for Sunday’s match at home to Arsenal but there is the likelihood he could be out for the rest of the season and would have therefore played his last minutes under the outgoing Chilean Manager
- Much was made of the fact that Cristiano Ronaldo was back from his own injury but this time it was Gareth Bale who stole the headlines
- Bale has been chipping in with crucial goals in La Liga as of late and it was Bale again who got the decisive winner after 20 minutes
- City were caught napping in Defence with Nicolas Otamendi slow to move out leaving Bale onside
- The Welshman struck from an acute angle inside the box on his right foot and the shot looped over Joe Hart via the woodwork and into the net to give Real the lead
- It was a fantastic finish although it did take a deflection off of Fernando who was then later credited with the Own Goal by UEFA
- With Real 1-0 they looked to put City to the sword, Sergio Ramos thought he put his side 2-0 up but his effort was ruled out of for offside
- It was wave after wave of Real attacks and City had to get to the interval at just 1-0 down to have any chance of staying in the encounter
- Thankfully they did but the second half was going to need a vast improvement
- But it never really came
- Raheem Sterling and Kelechi Iheanacho came on as second half subs but were largely ineffectual
- Still Madrid came in search of a second. Pepe rattled the woodwork, Ronaldo slammed dunk it into net but it was already offside in what was the games most bizarre moment of the game
- Joe Hart was again busy and for every save that he made you felt in the back of your mind that perhaps City could knick an away goal
- And they very nearly did on 88 minutes as Sergio Aguero unleashed a rocket from outside the box, he had done nothing of note all game and this shot certainly gave Kaylor Navas a fright as it fizzed agonisingly over the bar
- That was City’s one and only real hope as Los Blancos saw out the last few minutes to set up a repeat of the 2014 final
- This could be a very successful debut season for Zinedine Zidane who could still do the double
- While for Manuel Pellegrini just two games left to go and now the focus will be on securing a Top 4 place but questions will be asked as to whether he got his gameplan right last night. I think it’s fair to say he didn’t
Papa Johns – If your team scores twice then it’s half price
