De Bruyne rocket rips through Real Madrid and fires Manchester City belief

The ball was there to hit and how Kevin De Bruyne hit it. It was midway through the second half, Manchester City were behind to Vinícius Júnior’s scorching 36th‑minute blast and the feeling was starting to take hold that Real Madrid had this Champions League semi-final first leg exactly where they wanted it.

For City, the demons circled at the venue where it had all gone horribly wrong for them in the second leg of last season’s semi-final; the collapse at the end of normal time, two goals shipped to Rodrygo after the 90th minute, Karim Benzema’s extra‑time winner. Madrid were en route to their 14th title.

De Bruyne sliced through it all when he cut across the ball with the laces of his right boot, 25 yards out and centrally placed after Ilkay Gündogan’s layoff. Boy, did it fizz. It was always likely to take something special to beat Thibaut Courtois. This was it. Whatever Vinícius could do, so could De Bruyne.

Nothing would be settled here, everybody knew that. But at full‑time it was easy to feel that City were the happier with the draw. The impression would harden when Carlo Ancelotti, the Madrid manager, talked about the control he felt his team had enjoyed, how they restricted City to precious few clear-cut chances.

Is the holy grail edging nearer for City? Benzema with a far‑post header and the substitute, Aurélien Tchouaméni, with another vicious drive – the motif of the evening – extended Ederson towards the end but Madrid could not find the winner.

Tchouaméni’s attempt came in the 90th minute; there would be no late voodoo this time and, when the music had subsided after full-time it was the travelling City fans who made their voices heard. They had suffered last season, locked into their enclosure for what