Man City must learn Real Madrid lesson for Premier League title race and Bernabeu trip

Manchester City's Champions League semi-final first leg clash with Real Madrid will go down as one of the greatest matches in the competition's history, if not in the history of the game.

City's 4-3 victory had everything: goals (seven of them), incredible individual performances, as good an attacking team performance as you are ever likely to see, big names, moments of delirium and moments of disbelief.

And mistakes.

There is an irony to the fact that in one of the best games in living memory, three of the seven goals were enabled by an individual mistake, while at least two more could potentially have been avoided if a defender did something slightly differently.

READ MORE: Bad news for Real Madrid as Man City should be even stronger for classic Champions League rematch

Starting with the mistakes: the usually reliable David Alaba managed to get the ball stuck under his feet, presenting Gabriel Jesus with a clearest sight of goal he's ever likely to see. Fernandinho, standing in admirably at right-back after John Stones was withdrawn through injury, fell for Vinicius' trap on the halfway line and could not recover.

Aymeric Laporte should know better than to jump with his hand in the air, regardless of the fact that he did not intend to handle the ball in the penalty area.

Then there's the 'could-have-done-betters': Oleksandr Zinchenko played with superb intensity and desire all night, but in the one moment he was slightly slow in challenging for the ball, Karim Benzema took full advantage and produced a magnificent finish. For City's opener, Rodrygo and Fede Valverde's breakdown in communication allowed Kevin de Bruyne to ghost into the box and head home.

In the biggest of matches when elite footballers are going