City Watch: Blues dumped out of the Champions League before visit of league leaders

After writing the column last week, I didn’t know whether to be confident or not going into our second leg tie against Real Madrid.

We were 3-2 down ahead of the ‘second half’ of the tie after giving away two goals right at the death of the previous fixture.

Having not won in the Spanish capital since before covid, the writings looked like they were already on the wall. This feeling became even stronger after four minutes ass Kylian Mbappe, Real’s marquee signing in the summer, put his side 1-0 up from a long ball and frankly awful defending from the Blues. In fact, we didn’t really lay a glove on them for the entire 90 minutes, with Mbappe extending his goal in the first few minutes to a hat trick.

City managed a goal before the game was over, only a consolation though, as the 3-1 scoreline flattered the Blues against the Spanish champions. We’ve been a frustrating watch across this season in general, but the game in Madrid almost felt painful. To think we battered almost the same team 4-0 two years ago is a distant memory now as we look a shadow of the team from that historic season. 

I was hoping for a better performance and hopefully more passion against the Premier League leaders, Liverpool on Sunday. Over the last few years, this fixture has seen some absolute all time classics, with Pep vs Klopp a highlight of any season. A new era for the Reds has seen Slot take his team to the top of the table, with no other team really laying a glove on them so far.

Realistically, even if the result had gone City’s way, we were never going to be in the title race, but it would’ve been a great boost for our top four hopes and to gain back a little pride. This wasn’t to be however, with the Liverpool fans chanting, ‘Hand it over, Manchester’ that’s exactly what it felt like we were doing. I won’t be too bitter about it, we have won four on the bounce, but it didn’t feel nice to once again been so many levels below a team we once sparred with on an astronomic scale.

On the whole, we have fallen so far from where we once were, with players like Kevin De Bruyne suffering a rapid decline. I get the feeling there’s going to be a large player turn over in the summer, with some legends leaving. De Bruyne is another painful watch at the moment, mostly because I absolutely love the guy and he’s been one of he best players the Premier League has ever seen, but watching him try to so what he used to is upsetting. It’s like his mind knows what to do, but his body won’t let him do it.

I’m sure we’ll find out the fate of some of our players over the next few months, but first, City need to focus on finishing this season strong. Next, we have Spurs in the League, our bogey team over the past few years. Then on the weekend, we play Plymouth Argyle in the FA Cup, our only realistic chance of winning silverware this year.