Rio Ferdinand couldn’t help but laugh after Kylian Mbappe embarrassed Manchester City defender Josko Gvardiol with a shocking goal for Real Madrid within the Champions League.
Already boasting a one-goal advantage following a 3-2 win in the primary leg on the Etihad Stadium, Real Madrid appeared to place the Champions League play-off tie to bed with a scintillating first-half display on the Bernabeu.
Fans and pundits were curious to see if Pep Guardiola’s side could respond and keep their European hopes alive but Man City conceded after just 4 minutes.
A protracted ball from the back caused City’s defence far more trouble than it must have, with the experienced Ruben Dias misjudging a header to permit Mbappe to race through on goal and lob Ederson with an excellent finish.
Faced with a mountain to climb, Manchester City did little to suggest they might get back into the tie, with Real Madrid in actual fact pushing for a second.
And the house side scored again on 33 minutes as Mbappe picked up the ball from the hapless City defence and sat down Gvardiol with a daunting dummy before slotting past Ederson.
Reacting to the sensational goal, a sniggering Ferdinand said on TNT Sports’ commentary: ‘Mbappe, that’s wonderful, devastating.
‘He has absolutely laid the defender down on the ground and said, “sit down there and watch me slot this home”.
‘This goal is all about Kylian Mbappe. He laid him out. He might as well have gotten him a pillow to lie on there.’
Lead commentator Darren Fletcher added: ‘Kylian Mbappe puts the defender on the bottom and slams it in. That’s sensible.
‘Gvardiol might need a ticket to get back into the stadium. Mbappe just planted him on the turf after which put it past Ederson.’
Mbappe has recovered from a rather underwhelming begin to his Real Madrid profession to amass 27 goals already this season.
The France World Cup winner, who has netted 13 goals in his last 11 appearances, has more goals within the knockout stages of the Champions League since 2016 than every other player.
Assessing Man City’s performance on the half-time interval, ex-England goalkeeper Paul Robinson said: ‘It has been disappointing from a Man City standpoint.
‘To go 1-0 down inside 4 minutes really took the wind out of their sails and so they never really recovered.
‘They’ve not created any really good probabilities. Because the half finished they got higher and grew into the sport but so long as the likes of Kylian Mbappe, Jude Bellingham, Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo are on the pitch Man City look shaky defensively.
‘Any game plan that Pep Guardiola had coming into this game, set plays, shape, every other meetings, can have been focused around not conceding and staying in the sport.
‘The way by which they conceded the goal was poor too. Don’t get me mistaken it was a implausible finish from Kylian Mbappe however the ball should never have reached him.’
Real Madrid are in fact the Champions League holders after beating Borussia Dortmund 2-0 in last yr’s final.
Carlo Ancelotti’s side haven’t been at their scintillating best to date this season – ending eleventh within the Champions League group phase – but can never be missed in Europe.
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