They'll always have Istanbul. That was the only positive thing to say after Manchester City's Champions League hopes were demolished by Real Madrid and an insatiable Kylian Mbappe. Pep Guardiola's side were not just outclassed by the 15-times winners, they were overwhelmed by them, both physically and mentally. Watching Madrid ease to a 3-1 win on the night, and an emphatic 6-3 on aggregate, it was easy to forget that these two sides could only be separated by a penalty shootout when they met in last year's quarter-finals.
City's incredible 4-0 win over Madrid in the 2023 semi-final second leg at the Etihad Stadium felt like a very long time ago, and on Wednesday in the Spanish capital, there was very little sign of the team that had emphatically booked their ticket to the Istanbul final and went on to win the club's first-ever European Cup in Turkey. Just five players who started the final against Inter began the play-off second leg, and very soon it was four as John Stones limped off injured in the eighth minute.
Erling Haaland sat out with an injury and Kevin De Bruyne was not even called upon from the bench, the clearest sign of all that the team that conquered all before them and became only the second English side to win the treble has been consigned to the past. Guardiola had said on Saturday that City had a one percent chance of overturning the 3-2 deficit from the first leg, and although he took that comment back in the pre-match press conference, it turns out he was right all along.
His side, in their present guise, are simply no match for Madrid. The serial-winning Catalan is in for the long-haul after signing a new two-year contract with City, but on this evidence he will need to sign another deal of a similar length to Haaland's decade-long agreement if he is to ever see his side win the Champions League again. The scale of the rebuild Guardiola faces was laid bare as Madrid's four-pronged attack of Mbappe, Vinicius Jr, Rodrygo and Jude Bellingham feasted on their fresh kill, consigning City to their earliest exit from the Champions League since 2012.
Guardiola and his colleagues began the squad's reconstruction by spending £180m ($226m) on four new players in January, but it will take far more investment and far more time to reassemble a team that can even come close to rescaling the heights of just two years ago.
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