Dubai: The smiles on the faces of Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart and captain and centre-back Vincent Kompany can only have been ones of relief.
A 0-0 draw in the first leg of a Champions League semi-final is indeed, as both insisted in their post-match interviews, a good result — despite a match that most certainly gives credence to the cries of those who want the away goals rule scrapped.
There must be genuine concern though about the extent to which Manchester City will need to raise their game in the Bernabeu against Real Madrid — despite the protestations of manager Manuel Pellegrini.
You get the feeling that even if City do get one in the iconic ground, they will also, as they did against Paris Saint Germain in the quarter-finals, need to score two away from home.
On the evidence of the first leg, Real Madrid are more than capable of getting in behind a Manchester City back four that could quite conceivably be completely changed by Pep Guardiola when he takes over as boss in the summer.
‘Big Hart’, ‘Hart stopper’ carried the backpage headlines of the British newspapers Wednesday morning. He needed to be big to deny the efforts of Sergio Ramos, Casemiro and Pepe, all worryingly for City, stemming from corner kicks.
Let’s not forget that the heart of Real Madrid’s team should come beating back for the second leg. Despite not being without Cristiano Ronaldo — who is excellent in the air — for the entirety of Tuesday night’s game, and Karim Benzema for the second 45, Real, certainly in the second half, controlled the tempo of the game.
The major chances — and my goodness there were not many — were theirs.
Jese’s header off the bar started with Real building from the right-back position before beautifully playing one-touch through the middle of the park to the left, before recycling the ball back to the right.
Ample evidence of what Real Madrid are capable of.
Pepe nullified Sergio Aguero entirely. Kelechi Iheanacho played too far off Aguero when he replaced David Silva, who was sorely missed by City.
The midfield was dominated by the excellent Luka Modric. His detractors may decry him as merely ‘a continuity player’ and bemoan his lack of assists and goals, but what a continuity player to have. On the other hand, Toni Kroos, very possibly a Manchester City player next season, may have had a 98 per cent pass completion record but has to offer far more going forward.
Forward though, is what you can assure that Real Madrid will do on Wednesday night with nearly 80,000 baying Los Blancos fans pushing them on.
Zinedine Zidane’s side have an 18-0 Champions League aggregate record at the Bernabeu this season, meaning City will need to become the first side to breach their backline.
Ready for a “Rumble in the Bernabeu”, Hart rallied. They’ll need to lay a glove on Real Madrid first. And certainly need more than just him and his gloves to take them through.
