The negative record that Real Madrid has to overcome to go to the Champions League final

These Real Madrid/Man City duels are great, right?

The duel between Real Madrid and Manchester City defies all logic and Tuesday’s game was decided by two superstars who hit the ball with great force. Real Madrid opened the scoring through Vinicius Jr when he seemed most vulnerable, before Kevin De Bruyne equalized for the visitors in the best moment for the Whites in the contest.

Carlo Ancelotti’s empowerment of the individual is in stark contrast to Pep Guardiola’s meticulous emphasis on the collective, but the ideological dichotomy makes for an astonishing and often bewildering spectacle. These matches are pointless, but there is beauty in that unpredictability.

However, City would be the happier of the two teams at the end of the game, with a 1-1 draw ahead of next Wednesday’s second leg at the Etihad. Real Madrid’s record in this competition, when they don’t win the first leg at home, isn’t exactly impeccable.

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The whites have failed to win the first leg at the Bernabéu nine times in the Champions League, and only twice have they managed to advance to the next round. Both wins came against Manchester United.

In the 1999/00 season, Alex Ferguson’s Red Devils drew 0-0 in the first leg of the quarter-finals, before Madrid won the second leg at Old Trafford (3-2). Fernando Redondo was there.

Real Madrid advanced to the semi-finals and won the competition after beating Valencia 3-0 in the final.

13 years later, Old Trafford hosted Cristiano Ronaldo again at the Theater of Dreams for the first time since he left for the Spanish capital in 2009, but it was the Portuguese superstar who broke the hearts of Mancunians. An own goal from Sergio Ramos put United ahead and then two quick goals, the second of which came from Ronaldo’s boots, turned the tie around.

Madrid advanced to the quarter-finals with an aggregate score of 3-2 after United drew 1-1 at the Bernabéu.

However, as we have noted, these are the only two cases where Real Madrid advanced to the next round after failing to win the first leg at home. They have been eliminated seven times, with the two most recent examples (Manchester City in 2020 and Chelsea in 2021) coming against English clubs.

Arsenal (2005) and Liverpool (2009) also left the Spanish giants out of the competition after beating Real Madrid in the first leg at the Bernabéu.

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