Man City players and fans have turned Etihad into what Pep Guardiola wants after Real Madrid win

Forget Anfield and Old Trafford. Forget the Bernabeu and the Nou Camp. Ignore the Yellow Wall and the San Siro, the ultras of PSG and Bayern and the madness of Naples. Is there a more imposing stadium to play at than facing Manchester City at the Etihad these days? The stats would suggest not.

This is 26 Champions League games unbeaten here for Pep Guardiola's side, 24 of them won. The two draws? Dead rubbers against Sporting and Shakhtar. If there's something on it for City in Europe and they've got home comforts, then they're going to win.

In that time City have beaten Atalanta when they were the darlings of Europe, Atletico Madrid, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain twice and now Real Madrid on three occasions. Look at this season's results in the knockout stage for the scale of the domination. RB Leipzig were beaten 7-0, Bayern 3-0 and now Real 4-0.

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No other major European stadium comes close for this level of security for a home team. City have grown into their surroundings here. As Jack Grealish said after the draw in Madrid: "At the Etihad, we feel unstoppable."

The supporters are playing their part as well. Guardiola has started to see them deliver on the big occasions especially and the atmosphere on Wednesday was magnificent.

There were some concerns that City's ticketing policy for the game was risking affecting the atmosphere, that by allowing people who hadn't clocked up the loyalty to buy tickets they were inviting day trippers or even Real fans to flock in.

There were plenty of reports of visiting fans trying to get in the home end and some succeeding with their tickets, but then it was hard to tell the scale of that given the utter