Howitzers, raised eyebrows and a Keane-baiting seating plan in Madrid

While it may not have matched the nerve-shredding whiteknuckle ride of last season’s thriller at the Bernabéu in terms of excitement, Tuesday night’s Big Cup semi-final first leg between Real Madrid and Manchester City was not short on drama or controversy and leaves the tie finely poised before what one hopes will be a nerve-shredding whiteknuckle ride at the Etihad Stadium next week. Completely dominated by their visitors for the opening 36 minutes, Real Madrid bided their time before going ahead through a Vinícius Júnior surface-to-air screamer from distance that threatened to rip the goal-net from its moorings, only for City to restore parity courtesy of a low-trajectory Kevin De Bruyne howitzer against the run of play, after the hosts had abandoned their meek approach and begun to dominate proceedings.

In a game that saw countless fouls by Real Madrid players go unpunished, City’s equaliser proved a bone of contention for Carlo Ancelotti. The normally pragmatic Italian’s fabled eyebrow did a passable impression of the Wembley arch when he was shown a yellow card for protesting that it should have been disallowed because the ball had apparently gone out of play down by the touchline, not so much in the build-up, as the build-up to the build-up, some time before the otherwise excellent Eduardo Camavinga gave the ball away. While both goalkeepers were forced to make excellent saves, a draw seemed a fair result, while the shackling of Erling Haaland by Antonio Rüdiger was one of the more intriguing sub-plots on an evening when the hulking Norwegian automaton had one of his quieter nights in a City shirt.

While Haaland the younger may have had a conspicuously uneventful evening, the same could not be said of his old man.