Man City and Real Madrid play out tense semi-final stalemate

Manchester City 0 Real Madrid 0

The most important factor for Manchester City, reflecting on a night of surprising torpor, is that they at least prevented Real Madrid from registering the away goal that can often be so decisive in these fixtures. They survived a difficult second half, largely thanks to Joe Hart’s goalkeeping, but Manuel Pellegrini’s team might come to reflect on this game as a missed opportunity and it will certainly need a drastic improvement at the Bernabéu next week if they are to remember it as a happy occasion.

By the final whistle it felt as though the night had almost passed them by. Pellegrini's team did not create a clear scoring chance all night and the bad news is that Cristiano Ronaldo should be available again when the two sides renew acquaintances in Madrid next Wednesday. If it is true that Madrid without Ronaldo resemble a vase without a flower, City did not do enough to try to exploit it.

Their best moment arrived in stoppage time when Kevin De Bruyne, their outstanding performer, curled in a free-kick that required Keylor Navas to tip the ball over the crossbar but, that apart, it was unusual for City to play with so little menace, particularly when their opponents were missing their best player.

Ronaldo’s absence with a sore hamstring was certainly a debilitating setback for Madrid given that he had scored 16, and set up another four, of Madrid’s 26 goals to reach this semi-final. His portfolio this season has featured 47 goals in 44 games and it was easy to imagine the lift it gave City’s players when the news filtered through that they would not have to face his improvisational brilliance.

Madrid still had Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema but nobody occupies the thoughts of opposition defenders more than the two-time Ballon d'Or winner so, without Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane's team looked short of stardust for long passages. Every time Ronaldo gets the ball there is a sense of the unexpected and for the other team's supporters, a sudden wave of apprehension.

Madrid, sans Ronaldo, are nothing like so scary and when the game began there was no sense of Pellegrini’s men being afflicted by the kind of stage-fright that has destabilised them on other Champions League assignments.

City could also certainly take encouragement from the frequency with which Madrid misplaced passes in the first half and the surprising lack of fluency from the team that have won this competition more times than anyone else.

It was rare to see a side from the Bernabéu playing so scruffily but that made it all the more disappointing, perhaps, from City’s perspective that they could not move the ball more effectively themselves. For all De Bruyne’s intelligent probings, however, the home team did not carry a great deal of menace before half-time or after it.

David Silva’s contribution lasted only 40 minutes before an injury forced him off and Sergio Agüero was strangely subdued during those parts of the game when neither side passed the ball with the penetrative qualities that might have been expected.

He rarely makes a decisive impact in key fixtures and though both sides showed a desire to press forwards, it was a disappointing opening 45 minutes with a distinct shortage of penalty-area drama.

Ronaldo’s assertion that he would have risked playing had this been the final indicates that he should be back for the second leg next week, when City’s defence should probably brace themselves for a far more challenging night.

His replacement, Lucas Vázquez, was on the edges of the game for long spells and Bale, like a lot of his team-mates, spent a lot of time huffing and puffing around the pitch without managing anything particularly noteworthy.

Bale was struggling to show that he could make up for Ronaldo’s absence and there was also a reminder early in the second half that he still has a habit of going to ground in suspicious circumstances once he reaches the penalty area.

Madrid took a long time before they started knocking the ball around in a way that is usually associated with this team but there was a noticeable improvement after the interval and Sergio Ramos really ought to have done better with the game's first clear opening, when he was left alone on the edge of the six-yard area from a Toni Kroos corner but could only direct his header straight at Joe Hart.

There was no doubt that Kroos and Luka Modric were starting to become increasingly influential but there were still moments when Madrid's players gave up the ball in a way that had Zidane roaring with dismay on the touchline.

Both teams will feel they could have played much more cohesive, joined-up football but the emphasis was really on City to make the most of their home advantage and Agüero, in particular, chose a bad night to have one of his least effective matches.

Kelechi Iheanacho had replaced Silva but he struggled to get into the game and though De Bruyne was still doing his best to lift the team, Pellegrini must have been disappointed by the inability of his players to make it a more challenging night for Keylor Navas in the Madrid goal.

Soon afterwards, Jesé headed the ball on to the top of the crossbar. City looked vulnerable all night to crosses and, with Bale looking increasingly dangerous, it needed a point-blank save from Hart to keep out Pepe after a corner had dropped to him in the six-yard area.

(Guardian service)