Jamie Carragher has shared who he thinks is a better football team out of Manchester City and Real Madrid.
The two clubs met for the third time in a row this season for the latest Champions League tournament.
After drawing 3-3 at the Santiago Bernabeu last week in the first leg of their quarter-final tie, last night’s clash at the Etihad Stadium ended with a 1-1 draw after extra time.
In the following penalty shoot-out, the Spanish side won 4-3 after Bernardo Silva and Mateo Kovacic failed to convert their spot-kicks, sealing their place alongside Borussia Dortmund, Paris Saint-Germain and now Bayern Munich, who beat Arsenal 1-0 in Germany yesterday, in the semi-finals of the competition.
After the game, one pundit, who knows what it takes to win the Champions League, shared his thoughts on what he saw from the four sides in action last night.
Carragher picks who the better team is out of Man City and Real Madrid
Speaking on CBS Sports (via TikTok) after last night’s games, Carragher had this to say about what separates City and Real as teams at this moment in time and what separates them as established European clubs.
He said: “I don’t believe that Bayern Munich are a better team than Arsenal and I don’t believe that Real Madrid are better than Manchester City.
“But we are talking about a team who have never won the Champions League, in Arsenal, and we’re talking about Manchester City who have won it once.
“Real Madrid have won it 14 times, Bayern Munich six or seven. They just feel like they’re supposed to win European Cups.
“I don’t think Arsenal went into this tie believing they could get through. I always believed Bayern Munich would beat Arsenal just for the fact of the mentality, the size of the club and the history of playing in the Champions League.”
Man City dominated Real Madrid last night
Looking back over the 1-1 draw between City and Real, the home side ended the game with 67% possession and had 33 shots at goal in total, nine of which were on target.
In comparison, Carlo Ancelotti’s side had eight attempts at goal, with just three testing Ederson in the City net.
As well as that, the Blues racked up an overall passing accuracy percentage of 92% after completing 846 passes in total.
On the flip side, Real were not as adept with their passing as they only had a percentage of 82% accuracy from 373 passes.
Taking all of that into account, it’s clear that City were the dominant side last night but were just unable to do the key thing and score the goals needed to beat their opponents.
This makes it easy to see why Carragher thinks Pep Guardiola’s side are a better team than Real.
However, the fact that City beat the Spanish club 4-0 at the Etihad in last season’s semi-final second-leg showdown says to us that Real’s history in terms of winning the Champions League doesn’t always give them the edge to progress every year.