Real Madrid have edged closer to eliminating Manchester City from this year’s Champions League to secure their berth in the quarterfinals of the competition, MySportDab reports.
Los Blancos came into this game without their talismanic forward Kylian Mbappe, who has been sidelined with an injury.
Interestingly, despite Mbappe’s absence, the La Liga and European giants eased to a comfortable victory over a Manchester City side, who found themselves in disarray at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Federico Valverde stole the show with a career-record performance, scoring all three goals – his first Real Madrid/Champions League hat-trick – to inspire the hosts to victory.
He scored his first goal, racing past Manchester City’s left-back Nico O’Riley to pick up Thibaut Courtois’ long pass and then beat an on-rushing City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma before slotting it into the net.
His second goal was an absolute masterclass as he beat City center-back Marc Guehi with a lobbed effort and then fired it into the net, wrongfooting Donnarumma again.
Another shambolic Man City defence allowed the Uruguayan to nail home his third goal, firing a deflected shot into the net to make it 3-0 and put the game far beyond City.
All three goals came in the first half and were enough to seal a deserved 3-0 victory for the Alvaro Arbeloa-led side.
That win saw the host exact revenge for their 2–1 defeat to the Premier League champions in their league-phase earlier in the competition. They now head into the second leg next week on the advantage, with City now on the verge of crashing out of the competition.
VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS
