Haaland penalty completes City comeback in Madrid as Alonso’s Real sink deeper into trouble
Erling Haaland’s second‑half penalty sealed a 2-1 comeback win for Manchester City over Real Madrid on a feverish Champions League night at the Bernabéu, tightening the pressure on Xabi Alonso after another bruising defeat.
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Real Madrid struck first through Rodrygo, his first goal in 33 club appearances, but City answered through academy midfielder Nico O’Reilly’s assured equaliser before Haaland punished a clumsy Antonio Rüdiger challenge, a decision awarded after a VAR check. The result gave Pep Guardiola precisely the response he demanded after City’s previous Champions League loss to Bayer Leverkusen, while leaving Alonso with two wins in eight across all competitions and a chorus of whistles ringing at full time.
A fast start, then familiar frailty
The opening exchanges promised goals. Madrid’s intensity and width stretched City, with Jude Bellingham and Vinícius Júnior roaming to disrupt the visitors’ structure. A swaying Vinícius run drew a swipe from Matheus Nunes and Clément Turpin initially pointed to the spot, only for VAR to judge the foul fractionally outside the area; Federico Valverde’s free kick skidded narrowly past the far post.
Madrid did not look like a team in crisis early on. Vinícius dinked wide from a fine Rodrygo cross, the warning City failed to heed. Álvaro Carreras then wrestled possession from Bernardo Silva at left‑back to spark a break, Bellingham slotted Rodrygo in on the right, and the Brazilian cut across O’Reilly before arrowing a finish into the far corner. Relief surged through the stadium, Rodrygo sprinting straight to Alonso for an embrace that felt loaded with meaning.
Yet control evaporated. City’s tempo rose, their front line pulling at Madrid’s reshuffled back four. Thibaut Courtois made a double save to deny Haaland and Rayan Cherki after an O’Reilly delivery from the left, a let‑off that foreshadowed the turn.
O’Reilly alters the mood, Haaland decides it
City’s equaliser came from a corner that Madrid never properly cleared. Josko Gvardiol climbed above Bellingham to force Courtois into a parry from Cherki’s outswinger, and O’Reilly reacted first, drilling in his first Champions League goal. Madrid protested, gesturing for a foul by Rúben Dias on Rüdiger, but replays showed no offense.
From there City grew into themselves. Cherki, eager to showcase his footwork, and Jérémy Doku, direct and brave on the dribble, tilted the game toward Madrid’s right flank. When O’Reilly crossed again, Haaland’s near-post movement put Rüdiger in a bind; the defender grabbed and tumbled on top of the striker. Turpin initially waved play on before VAR sent him to the monitor. Penalty. Haaland did the rest with trademark cool.
Alonso’s gamble, margins that cut
Alonso, undercut by a defensive injury crisis and with Kylian Mbappé unfit and unused after being named to the bench, rolled the dice. He introduced Endrick for center back Raúl Asencio in an all‑or‑nothing substitution that announced its intent. Madrid surged on emotion and field position, and chances came. Bellingham lofted a golden one over Gianluigi Donnarumma with the score at 2-1 but overhit his chip. Vinícius headed wide and then thrashed a volley over. Endrick found inches but not luck, thumping a header off the crossbar as the Bernabéu gasped.
City were not perfect—this was a rugged European away performance rather than the pristine edition—but they were composed when it mattered. Guardiola, stung by selection questions after the Leverkusen defeat, went strong and pragmatic, then leaned on his wide players to relieve pressure and carry threat. He will have noted Rüdiger’s ragged evening—he could easily have seen a second yellow late on—and the way O’Reilly’s punchy display balanced City’s midfield on a night that demanded maturity.
The manager in the spotlight
Alonso’s predicament feels as much about timing as tactics. From the outside the slide looks sudden: results were excellent in early November; since then precious little has gone his way. The dressing-room whispers alleging a lack of enthusiasm for his methods preceded this match, and yet his players largely ran for him here. They were not passive; they were simply outmanoeuvred at critical junctures, their flaws exposed under pressure. In that context, the postmatch embrace for Rodrygo’s strike registered as an appeal for unity as much as celebration.
The match also underlined Madrid’s thin margins without Mbappé’s incision and with a patched-up back line. There was enough fluidity to stretch City but not enough control to keep them stretched. In Europe’s elite matches, moments decide trajectories; Madrid’s were wasteful, City’s clean.
What it means
For City, this was the kind of measured, hard-edged road win that resets a campaign. It restored conviction after the Leverkusen wobble and burnished O’Reilly’s emergence alongside the inevitable Haaland headlines. Cherki and Doku added verve to the blueprint Guardiola prefers away from home: control the middle, punish the edges, live with the rest.
For Madrid and Alonso, the numbers bite: two wins in eight, the Bernabéu’s whistles growing sharper, and no respite from the calendar. Endrick’s late thump off the bar will live in the “what if” pile with Bellingham’s overcooked chip and Vinícius’s errant finishes. The footballing gods were not in their corner. Nor, increasingly, is time.
Key notes
- Real Madrid 1-2 Manchester City: Rodrygo; O’Reilly, Haaland (pen)
- Referee Clément Turpin overturned an early Madrid penalty to a free kick after VAR review
- Nico O’Reilly scored his first Champions League goal; Erling Haaland converted the winner from the spot
- Endrick hit the crossbar late; Kylian Mbappé was an unused substitute
- City steadied after defeat to Bayer Leverkusen in their previous Champions League match
By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
