These Real Madrid/Man City duels are just great, aren't they?
Their bouts defy all logic and reason, with Tuesday night's affair being decided by a pair of superstars hitting the ball very hard. Real Madrid opened the scoring through Vinicius Jr when they were seemingly at their most vulnerable before Kevin De Bruyne equalised for the visitors amid Los Blancos' best spell of the contest.
Carlo Ancelotti's empowerment of the individual entirely contrasts Pep Guardiola's meticulous emphasis on the collective, but the ideological dichotomy makes for stunning and often bewildering viewing. These games just don't make sense, but there's beauty in such unpredictability.
Nevertheless, City would've been the happier of the two sides at the final whistle with the tie locked at 1-1 heading into next Wednesday's second leg at the Etihad. Real's record in this competition, when they fail to win the first leg at home, isn't exactly pristine.
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Real Madrid must overturn negative Champions League record to reach final
Los Blancos have failed to win the first leg at the Bernabeu nine times in the Champions League, and only twice have they progressed into the next round. Both of these second-leg successes came against Manchester United.
In 1999/00, Real were held to a stalemate by Fergie's Red Devils in the first leg of their quarter-final tie before they won the return leg at Old Trafford 3-2. Fernando Redondo was there.
Real progressed into the semi-finals and went on to win the competition after beating Valencia 3-0 in the final.
13 years later, Old Trafford welcomed Cristiano Ronaldo back to the Theatre of Dreams for the first time since he left for the Spanish capital in 2009, but it was the Portuguese superstar that broke Mancunian hearts. A Sergio Ramos own goal put United ahead on the night before two quick-fire goals, the second of which came from the boot of Ronaldo, turned the contest on its head.
Real advanced into the quarter-finals as 3-2 winners on aggregate after United had earned a 1-1 draw at the Bernabeu.
However, as we've noted, these are the only two examples of Real progressing into the next round after failing to win the first leg at home. Seven times they've been eliminated, with the two most recent examples (Man City in 2020 and Chelsea in 2021) coming against English clubs.
Arsenal (2005) and Liverpool (2009) have also knocked the Spanish behemoths out of the competition after beating Real at the Bernabeu in the first leg.
Real Madrid's Champions League record when failing to win the first leg at home
This article was originally published on 90min as Real Madrid must overturn negative Champions League record to reach final.
