Injury-hit Real Madrid 3-0 Manchester City: Haaland with 0 shots, 0 successful aerial duels, only 10 touches – fans miss Alvarez

Haaland, valued at 200 million euros, is a severely overrated player. Guardiola's blind faith in Haaland, and selling Alvarez, has led to increasingly severe offensive issues for Manchester City...

At 4 a.m. Beijing time on March 12, the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals featured a heavyweight clash, with an injury-hit Real Madrid hosting Manchester City at home.

In the first half, Valverde scored a hat-trick, assisted by Courtois and Diaz, giving Real Madrid a 3-0 lead at halftime; in the second half, Vinicius created a penalty chance but missed it, Donnarumma saved the penalty, and Courtois made a miraculous save to keep the goal intact.

Ultimately, Real Madrid secured a commanding 3-0 victory over Manchester City, gaining a crucial advantage for advancement. The second leg will be held at Manchester City's home stadium on the 18th.

Real Madrid vs Manchester City: Mbappe absent due to injury, Aveloia deployed a 442 formation, with Diaz and Vinicius as the twin strikers. Valverde, Pitarch, Tchouameni, and Guler formed the four midfielders. Arnold, Rudiger, Heisen, and Mendy comprised the four defenders, Courtois as goalkeeper, with a starting lineup valued at 651 million euros.Guardiola deployed a 4132 formation, with Haaland and Semenyo as the twin strikers. Doku, B. Silva, and Savinho formed the three midfielders, Rodri as the sole defensive midfielder. O'Reilly, Guehi, Ruben Dias, and Husanov comprised the four defenders, Donnarumma as goalkeeper, with a starting lineup valued at 727 million euros..

This match produced a result unexpected by fans. Real Madrid, struggling with poor form and a severe injury crisis this season, secured a 3-0 lead by halftime with Valverde's hat-trick, and Vinicius even missed a penalty in the second half. Real Madrid's 3-0 sweep of Manchester City left fans and media astonished. Guardiola had previously rotated heavily to give key players ample rest, including Haaland, yet this highest-valued forward once again proved the rule of disappearing in tough matches. As Manchester City's starting forward, Haalandhad zero shots on target throughout the match. Despite his tall stature, he had zero successful aerial duels, zero key passes, zero dribbles completed, zero fouls drawn, leaving only an embarrassing 10 touches, the lowest number among all 22 starting players. Whether Manchester City should field Haaland is now questionable. Such performance from Haaland makes Manchester City fans deeply miss Alvarez, who scored two goals and provided one assist against Tottenham. Alvarez received a perfect 10/10 rating post-match, while Haaland only scored 6.1. Guardiola's blind faith in Haaland and selling Alvarez marks the beginning of Manchester City's decline, as Haaland consistently vanishes in high-stakes clashes.

Throughout the entire match,Real Madrid's possession rate was only 40%, with 12 total shots, 7 of which were on target; Manchester City had 8 total shots, 4 of which were on target..