Lunin the hero as Real Madrid eliminate Manchester City on penalties

The Real Madrid goalkeeper stopped two penalties to help sink the defending champions

Manchester City and Real Madrid played out another memorable Champions League clash as goals from Rodrygo and Kevin De Bruyne forced a penalty shootout, where Matteo Kovacic had the dishonour of missing the crucial spot kick as Pep Guardiola's side were dumped out of the competition.

The opening strike of the night went in favor of Los Blancos as they stole the lead against the run of play through Rodrygo when Federico Valverde played Vinicius Jr. in behind. TheBrazilian crossed to his compatriot, who's first effort was stopped superbly by Ederson, before he fortuitously tapped into an empty goal after 12 minutes.

Real Madrid lived dangerously throughout the entire match as the home side created chance after chance after chance, creating incredible pressure at a boisterous atmosphere at the Etihad Stadium and the Spaniards had just one shot after the 24th minute until extra time.

So, as physics will dictate, the more pressure applied to an object, the greater the inevitability it will break and that happened to Real Madrid when Antonio Rudiger slipped in the box dealing with a cross, leaving De Bruyne to fire home from just yards out to level the affairs in the 75th minute in a thrilling encounter.

It was there that the contest was brutally settled via the haunting method of penalties when both Bernando Silva and Matteo Kovacic delivered awful penalties that were saved by Andriy Lunin as Los Blancos headed to the Champions League semi-finals, despite being dominated throughout the game.

City had countless chances throughout, such as Erling Haaland's header from a De Bruyne cross which thundered off the woodwork and fell to Bernando Silva,