Real do their job. Over to City to set up a tie to make the football world sit up and drool 

STARBOY: Real Madrid's Rodrygo celebrates scoring their side's second goal of the game with team-mates. Pic: Nick Potts/PA Wire.

Manchester City now know their likely Champions League semi-final opponents after Real Madrid, as expected, eased past Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and it sets up a tie that has the potential to be one of football’s all-time classics.

Erling Haaland against Karim Benzema, the two best number nines in the world, Pep Guardiola against Carlo Ancelotti, arguably the two best managers. And two teams who stand out in this year’s competition as the top two favourites, with a growing rivalry to boot.

You couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for Chelsea as they gave everything against Real at Stamford Bridge, despite their crisis-torn season, to create their own piece of history under caretaker manager Frank Lampard. 

But, for many neutrals, the chance to see City v Real one more time would have been enough to pick white ahead of blue in west London and cheer on Ancelotti’s men.  

Who knows, perhaps even Pep & Co may have felt that way as Rodrygo, the man who ended their dreams last year in such brutal fashion, struck twice to put Real through.

It is tempting to think of City players cheering Chelsea in their living rooms, having been knocked out by Real in the semi-finals last year and with the struggling Blues sat halfway down the Premier League; they certainly would have been big favourites had Lampard’s side somehow made it through.

But an all-English tie always adds the feel of a derby, with form thrown out the window, and matches played at a frantic pace – and City have miserable memories of games at Liverpool in Europe which took exactly that form.

They also remember, of course, that their only ever Champions League tie against the Blues came in the final of 2021, when they lost 1-0 to a goal from Kai Havertz, on a night when Guardiola was accused of getting his tactics wrong.

A semi-final between Real and City, however, will surely bring something completely different, for players and public; the kind of tie that makes the whole football world sit up and drool.

The sides met at the same stage last season and produced two of the most dramatic and entertaining ties in recent memory as Real eventually went through 6-5 on aggregate.

What will be fascinating will be to see what City have learned from that experience.

They went all-out, guns blazing in the first tie at the Etihad last year, winning 4-3 in a match that many critics still describe as one of the greatest ties in Champions League history. It saw City lead 2-0, 3-1 and 4-2 in a quite remarkable performance in which Real somehow got back up off the canvas time and time again. A trick they seem to have perfected.

Will City be as gung-ho this time? Or, with extra maturity and a new outlet in the remarkable Haaland, will they be more measured and leave the big Norwegian to make his contribution when it really matters?

There is certainly a new maturity to City’s play this campaign, with Jack Grealish improving rapidly and the squad learning week by week how to get the best out of Haaland since his arrival from Germany.

It’s no over-statement to suggest that Haaland v Benzema has the potential to be one of the biggest match-ups ever in Champions League history and, on current form, it’s hard to see the City man losing out. 

Still aged only 22 he has 53 goals for club and country already this season, including 11 in the Champions League. Benzema, by contrast, has four in the competition, despite Real relatively easy passage to the last four.

But City cannot take anything for granted. Time and time again this Real side has shown it is a team capable taking big hits and always coming back; a side able to soak up pressure as well as deliver punches. They also showed at Stamford Bridge a patience not to rush a result, and a ruthlessness to finish it when the opportunity arose. They were never, ever in any danger.

Last year they also ended City’s big dream with a late comeback at the Bernabeu after Riyad Mahrez had put the visitors 5-3 up on aggregate; until three goals in injury time (two from Rodrygo and one from Benzema), sent Ancelotti’s men through to a final in Paris in which, of course, they won against Liverpool to lift the trophy.

So, who are the favourites this time around? That is the question every pundit in every country in Europe will be asking and you suspect the answers will be varied.

It’s a new rivalry in terms of football history but it’s been a tight one. In eight games so far, both sides have won three and drawn two, with Real winning narrowly on goal difference by 13 to 12. They do, however, also win by 14 European Cups to nil – and that’s where heritage makes Real difficult to bet against.

City, at least, can point a list of very tight results.

Even back in 2012 when the teams met for the very first time, in any competition, Real only edged it 3-2 with Benzema, as well as Ronaldo, on the scoresheet and Edin Dzeko the stand-out performer for City.

Since then, only one game, at the Etihad in 2016, has ended goalless and there has only ever been one away win – for City at the Bernabeu in February 2020 when Gabriel Jesus and a penalty winner from Kevin de Bruyne gave them victory in a last 16 tie which they went on to win 4-2 on aggregate.

Those are the stats that sit behind a fascinating semi-final, but it is the quality of the players, from De Bruyne to Vinicius, Haaland to Benzema, that really lights the touchpaper. Sorry, Chelsea, but it was the tie everybody wanted to see, and it was the right one.