Real Madrid defender Antonio Rudiger claimed that Manchester City “were not dangerous” in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final between the two European giants.
Despite a stunning goal from Vinicius Junior for Real Madrid in the first half, Kevin De Bruyne equalized with a goal of similar quality after the break. However, replays indicate that the equalizer should not have stood as the ball went off the pitch during the previous phase of play.
Manchester City had a dominant spell in the opening stages of the match before Vinicius broke the deadlock. Conversely, City’s equalizer came somewhat against the run of play during a challenging second half for Pep Guardiola’s team.
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Rudiger, assigned to man-mark Erling Haaland, effectively subdued the Norwegian striker using his trademark wind-up tactics for a significant portion of the game.
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Speaking to beIN Sports post-match, Rudiger believed not only that Real Madrid did enough to win the game, but they excelled in nullifying Man City’s main threats.
“They got the goal quite late so we feel like we could have had more but it’s not a problem, the tie is definitely on and we can go to Manchester with confidence,” Rudiger said.
“At the end of the day, they were not dangerous. They had a lot of possession, we knew this would happen, but they were not dangerous. The goal is quality from De Bruyne.”
Rudiger was then asked if he was confident of securing a result in the second leg at the Etihad Stadium next Wednesday.
“We are Real Madrid, we are always confident,” he simply replied.
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