No matter how modestly you play and no matter how far below your standards you slip, moments of individual brilliance can dig you out of the deepest hole.
Here it was the turn of Phil Foden to drag Manchester City to safety and within sight of yet another Champions League semi-final.
This was not the City we know. Playing in a famous stadium looking rather different beneath its new closed roof, Pep Guardiola’s team of champions were largely unrecognisable also.
Having led within two minutes, they trailed after fourteen. City were sloppy, slow and careless. At times it looked as though Real Madrid may run right through them. Maybe they should have. Rodrygo, Vinicius Junior and friends missed enough chances.
But City remain a special team and Foden a special player. The goal he struck to equalise midway through the second half flew like an arrow from 20 yards in to the top corner. It raised the temperature of a superb game even higher and inspired team mate Josko Gvardiol to follow with a stunning strike of his own five minutes later. Remarkably, with 20 minutes to go, City led 3-2.
Their lead was not to last. Another wonderful goal followed in the 78th minute, this time from the left foot of Real’s Federico Valverde. So this frantic evening in the Spanish capital ended with six goals shared. City will be the team feeling better about all of that ahead of the second leg, though. Offered such a result at half-time, they would have accepted in a heartbeat.
City began the first half as though they were about to take an enduring grip of the game. They ended it hanging on grimly. The shift in power, direction and territory had been as remarkable as it had been complete.
The greatest news for Guardiola and his players was that the
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