09 May 2023 , 20:54
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If you want to give Antonio Rudiger the benefit of the doubt, call it a clumsy challenge.
Taking that benefit to the extreme, you could say Ilkay Gundogan ran into the stiff arm of an immovable force. Either way, Gundogan - after half an hour of goalless Manchester City dominance - came out of the collision significantly worse and his team-mates were far from happy.
Perhaps those team-mates had flashbacks to the collision between Rudiger, then at Chelsea, and Kevin de Bruyne in the 2021 Champions League final which left the Belgian with a broken nose and fractured eye socket.
Pep Guardiola was also far from happy with Rudiger but referee Artur Dias decided no offence had taken place and only stopped play when it was clear Gundogan was hurt.
Replays suggested it was not the worst decision made by the Portuguese official - there were plenty of true shockers - and Gundogan was eventually deemed fit enough to continue, but the incident rattled City, just as Dani Carvajal’s disgraceful antics rattled City.
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Even Toni Kroos got in on the niggling, fouling act. There are many reasons Real Madrid are masterful Champions League operators and one of them is that they can soon gauge a referee’s tolerance level.
And Dias, in the first half, let them get away with all sorts of chicanery. Where to start with Carvajal? Getting to half-time without being cautioned was simply a sensational achievement.
He had already committed three fouls worthy of yellow cards before barging Jack Grealish into the advertising hoardings and then going down theatrically when the City man had a petulant flick at him in response.
Real Madrid defender Dani Carvajal reacts after an incident with Jack Grealish (AFP via Getty Images)The unpalatable irony is that Carvajal’s violent shove could have caused Grealish to sustain a serious injury yet the Spanish defender then went down as though he had been chinned. But it was all part of the meticulous Real approach - wind City up, disturb their composure with every trick you can think of.
They needed to do just that because it is a measure of Pep’s possession game that even royalty such as Real concede their best ploy is to operate largely on the counter-attack and be as disruptive as possible, by whatever means possible.
There are some who might find the odd Real tactic to be reprehensible but most would describe the 14-times champions as streetwise.
Either way, not only do they know how to win knife-edge European ties, they know how to knock even the classiest teams out of their composed strides. It was to City’s credit that they regained coolness and had a reward with Kevin de Bruyne’s fantastic strike.
But their composure will get another thorough test at the Etihad, make no mistake.