Manchester City have been knocked out of the Champions League by Real Madrid after suffering a rare defeat at the Etihad Stadium.
At least a three goal win was required for Manchester City to progress to the quarter-finals, but the opening stages of the first half turned out to be somewhat of a disaster.
Federico Valverde should have made it 1-0 to the visitors inside two minutes. The midfielder found himself one-on-one with Gianluigi Donnarumma, but hit a tame effort at the goalkeeper.
Rayan Cherki hit the post just moments later as Man City began to look more threatening, but everything went wrong in the 17th minute. Vinicius Jr struck the inside of the post and soon after he landed a shot on target which was blocked by the elbow of Bernardo Silva.
After a VAR check, the City captain was deemed to have denied Real Madrid a goalscoring opportunity and he was subsequently sent off. Vinicius made no mistake with his penalty this time around and just like that, the hosts were a goal and a man down.
Erling Haaland had a chance almost immediately after Madrid took the lead, but his effort was saved by Thibaut Courtois. In no time at all, Vincius should have scored at the other end, but he skied his attempt on goal.
The winger missed another big opportunity in the 28th minute and he was made to regret this when Haaland scored shortly before half-time, after some great wing play by Jeremy Doku.
Half-time: Manchester City 1-1 Real Madrid
Manchester City were unable to build on their momentum in the second half
Tijjani Reijnders and Ruben Dias made way for Nathan Ake and Marc Guehi before the match resumed in order to provide Man City with more stability.
However, Real Madrid once again had a chance to score almost immediately, which was missed by Vinicius. Haaland then forced a save from Andriy Lunin, who replaced the injured Courtois at half-time.
Vincius took the ball around Donnarumma just after the hour mark, but he ran straight into the Italian. Play continued and Man City quickly had the ball in the net at the other end of the pitch, with Jeremy Doku scoring the goal. However, it was narrowly offside and did not count.
The game quietend down a bit after this, but Rayan Ait-Nouri thought he had put his team ahead on the night in the 78th minute. Unfortunately for the left-back, his goal was quickly ruled out as he too failed to stay behind the last Real Madrid defender.
Kylian Mbappe went down in the Man City box a short while later after an Ait-Nouri shirt tug and this was revisited by VAR after Vinicius joined the list of offside scorers on the night. Despite the check, the decision was made not to award a penalty.
The Brazilian put one in from an unfair vantage point yet again in stoppage time, so the scoreline remained at 1-1. However, he scored just second later to end the game in the cruelest possible way.
Full-time: Manchester City 1-2 Real Madrid (1-5 on aggregate)
Man City must turn their focus to the Carabao Cup final
Once again, Man City have recorded another disappointing result, although there are some positives to take considering the circumstances.
The Citizens stayed in the game, despite being a man down and had some promising moments in attack.
Right now, the best thing to do is to look forwards and prepare for a game against Arsenal where the stakes are absolutely huge.
This is a brilliant chance for Man City to win a trophy and it is realistically only one of two chances they have remaining.
