Manchester City's tame Champions League exit only reinforces task of revival for Guardiola 

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola applauds the fans. Pic: John Walton/PA Wire.

THE scale of the task confronting Pep Guardiola as he attempts to revive his Manchester City side in the coming months has been clear for some time and only reinforced by the way they slipped out of the Champions League with barely a fight at the Bernabeu.

An absorbing rivalry has grown between City and Real Madrid in recent seasons as they served up a series of thrilling dramatic ties. 

This two-legged meeting, a play-off for a place in the last 16, was certainly not one of them as Guardiola’s side offered little resistance against a Real side seemingly ready to move through the gears as they launch another bid to be crowned European champions.

By contrast to the La Liga side, with a Premier League challenge beyond them, City’s remaining targets are ensuring they secure a place in next season’s competition and the FA Cup.

Kylian Mbappe’s hat-trick may have killed off the contest but the differences between the two sides ran much deeper.

These teams have met in the knock-out stage of the competition in each of the last three seasons, with the winner - Real twice, City once - going on to win the competition. 

The challenge facing Guardiola this summer is to overhaul his side in manner that will bridge the gap that has opened up this season.

That process began during the January transfer window when City brought forward some of their planned summer recruitment to bring in Omar Mamoush, Nico Gonzalez and Abdukadir Khusanov. 

All three were included in Guardiola’s starting line-up and showed signs they will take time to become integral parts of this side. Khusanov in particular will be keen to forget a night when he was too often left isolated against Vinicius Junior.

It was a reflection of City’s diminished standing this season that they came into this game as clear underdogs. A single goal first leg deficit may not, on the face of it, be a particularly daunting challenge but the way City allowed a late lead to slip in the first leg didn’t augur well. 

Nor did the fact that Real had won 20 of the last 21 European two-legged ties when they held a first-leg lead.

Guardiola had exaggerated the scale of the challenge when he claimed City had a 1% chance of going through. The manager may have been being mischievous but the way his side allowed Carlo Ancelotti’s side to take a fourth-minute lead did nothing to strengthen their belief they could overturn the odds.

A routine long ball caught out Ruben Dias and with Ederson in no man’s land, Mbappe was able to lift the ball over the City 'keeper.

It didn’t help that John Stones jarred his leg and was forced off four minutes later but there was little sign they were ever capable of mounting a fightback.

The qualities we have come to expect from Guardiola’s side were well hidden. Defensive uncertainty has been a running theme of their campaign but last night that was matched by a similarly weak performance in possession.

The confidence to manipulate the ball was missing as was the movement required to establish the intricate passing moves that have become the side’s hallmark. 

They looked disjointed in all areas of the pitch and the frequency with which a player in a maroon shirt could be seen complaining about a teammate’s failure to be exactly where they should be was telling.

It didn’t help of course that Erling Haaland was injured and had to watch from the bench as Kylian Mbappe provided the lesson in finishing City didn’t want to witness. 

Without the Norwegian, Guardiola was forced to reshape his forward line, with Omar Mamoush and Savinho shouldering more responsibility for providing the team’s goal threat, backed by Phil Foden and Bernardo Silva. 

The comparison with Real’s front four of Mbappe, Vinicius Junior, Rodrygo and Jude Bellingham only highlighted the difference between the two teams.

Mbappe was in the mood to exploit any defensive slip and ruthlessly killed off any lingering hopes City may have had of recovering.