Man City stars touch back down in Manchester after painful Real Madrid defeat

Manchester City 's players have landed back in the UK following their Champions League heartache in Madrid.

The English champions were aiming to return to the final of the European Cup for the second straight season and looked on course for a Paris date with ten minutes remaining in the Bernabeu. Riyad Mahrez scored the opener on the night, putting City ahead 5-3 on aggregate.

However the 13-time European champions staged yet another comeback late on as Rodrygo proved an unlikely hero, scoring twice in two minutes to send the tie into extra-time. Los Blancos then took the lead for the first time in the semi-final thanks to a Karim Benzema penalty.

It completed a barely fathomable turnaround - and not for the first time in this year's competition. Madrid have now seen off PSG, Chelsea and City in dramatic circumstances. It leaves Pep Guardiola's outfit licking their wounds after yet another failure in Europe. The club's hierarchy crave Champions League success, but it continues to elude them.

The defeat will be made all the more painful given their dominance across the two-legs. City were sensational in their 4-3 win at the Etihad and should've taken a great lead to the Spanish capital. In Madrid Ederson was barely tested until Rodrygo's opener on 89 minutes.

Guardiola went with a near full strength XI and welcomed back Kyle Walker, who was able to combat the pace of Vinicius Jnr down Madrid's left flank. The Catalan coach has now missed out on Europe's top prize for the past 11 years with his last success coming in 2011 with Barcelona.

Monaco, Tottenham, Liverpool and Lyon are among the teams to quash Guardiola's and City's ambitions. Madrid can now add themselves to that list. The 51-year-old confessed that his