By Samuel Meade
Antonio Rudiger claimed his duel against Erling Haaland was going to be "personal" - and the Real Madrid defender duly delivered as he kept the Norwegian quiet.
The Manchester City marksman failed to score in the two games between the sides as the Spanish outfit advanced into the last four of the Champions League. Despite being second best at the Etihad, it was Real who emerged victorious after a penalty shootout.
Rudiger scored the winning spot kick after producing a stellar defensive display with City dominating the second-leg. Haaland hit the bar early on with a looping header but otherwise, across the two legs, was largely contained by the Los Blancos backline.
Before the two matches, former Chelsea man explained his motivation. He said: "It was a good game last year at the Bernabéu. We all did a great job keeping Haaland quiet that evening. And my teammates did a good job keeping [Kevin] De Bruyne quiet. This time, the plan will be to control dangerous players like Phil Foden, De Bruyne, and Haaland... It's personal for me as a defensive player, against a super striker like Haaland."
Pep Guardiola eventually bought his striker off in the second leg on Wednesday night, replacing him with Julian Alvarez. The City boss admitted that Haaland, as well as Kevin De Bruyne, were out of energy and had to be hauled off despite them chasing a winner.
Haaland claimed the treble in his debut year with the Manchester outfit, but won't be backing that up with another Champions League winner's medal. He's scored at an incredible rate on the European stage, but couldn't add to his goal tally against Madrid.
Rudiger, who won the European Cup with Chelsea before heading to the Bernabeu, has claimed that coming up against City's greatest marksman Sergio Aguero was a more difficult prospect than facing Haaland.
He said on his toughest opponent: "Haaland is one of the strongest, no doubt. But if I could choose one, it would be Aguero. It’s not easy to control Haaland. He lives off passes from his teammates and, as I said before, you can’t control everything and players like De Bruyne and co. give him very dangerous passes.”
There was some criticism of the approach adopted by Real against City but Carlo Ancelotti maintained it was the only way to set-up against City. “This is a great result obtained with great sacrifice. We defended well, and it was the only way to win here,” he said.
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