Second leg finely poised as Real Madrid and Manchester City share six goal thriller

Real Madrid 3 Manchester City 3

PHIL Foden continued his masterful season and Josko Gvardiol claimed his first ever Manchester City goal as Pep Guardiola took the upper hand in this Champions League quarter-final between two of the greatest names in European football royalty, on the field and in the dug-outs.

There was a spectacular equaliser for Real’s Federico Valverde, a majestic right foot volley from Vinicius Junior’s 78th minute cross, that completed yet another high-scoring classic between these giants, with the sixth goal of the evening.

And Guardiola’s old rival Carlo Ancelotti had enjoyed two huge deflections, one a Ruben Dias own goal, as his side stormed back from Bernardo Silva’s early opener, to take a 2-1 lead.

Pep and Carlo, City and Real, holders and 14-time winners. Here were the two heavyweights of European football, present and past, and it looked like going the way of the former, thanks to two goals in as many minutes midway through the second half.

On 66 minutes, Silva and John Stones played simple passes on the edge of the area that created space for Foden to bury an unstoppable shot into the top corner of the Real goal from 18 yards.

And two minutes later, a short Grealish pass did the same for left-back Gvardiol who, again, exploited space in the home defence to plant a fierce shot into the top corner and City led 3-2.

After hours, days, weeks of analysis since the two European powerhouses were drawn together, it had taken Real all of 109 seconds to concede the opening goal in desultory fashion.

Ancelotti had opted to start Aurelien Tchouameni at centre-half and he was booked for fouling Grealish as he tore upfield with City’s first attack, after 37 seconds - a card that means he is suspended