Flurry of goals keep the tie alive as Pep’s Citizens dominate over Los Blancos

In a wild Uefa Champions League semifinal that resembled a basketball game at times, Manchester City held off a stirring challenge by Real Madrid 4-3 in the first leg.

This was the first Champions League semifinal game in 23 years to see both teams score 3 goals or more in 90 minutes.

Pep Guardiola is a true mastermind and this game proves how his team can run riots and dominate the tempo of the game brilliantly with Juego de Posición.

The buildup with little passes and change of positions to the stunning goal Bernardo Silva scored for Manchester City shows the true beauty of Pep's tactics.

On the 71st minute of the match, Vinicius Jr was trying to attack from the right side of Manchester City's defence. However, Fernandinho tackled him with the help of the press of Riyad Mahrez and Bernardo Silva. 

From then on, the Citizens did not lose the ball even for a second for the next two straight minutes. In this precious little time, Pep's team made 29 passes with each player changing their positions constantly. Aymeric Laporte to Gabriel Jesus - all the 10 outfield players - had the touch of the ball.

Many coaches and players have to take note from this 2 minutes of simple gameplay if they want to make themselves inevitable. 

Carlo Ancelotti lost it all again and his Real Madrid side were out of the game for most part of it. Mostly it is because of how Pep had beaten Carlo with his tactics.

However, they are the Los Blancos and even on a dire European night, they never lose hope as that is a dangerous thing. And the driving force to their hope is always their captain.

Even on a night when the Citizens scored 4 goals - which should have been 8 by the looks of it - the Los Blancos put 3 on the nets with a brilliant brace by none other than Karim Benzema. The single panenka penalty when his team was down by 4-2 is the epitome of his season and shows Ballon d'Or is just on the grip of his fingers.

Kevin De Bruyne, as usual, played like a monster on a big game and the 21-year-old Phil Foden yet again showed true character of a matured footballer proving how he is the best English talent out there currently. 

Both the players scored goals from headers. The Belgian midfield star scored on the second minute of the match making himself a flying Belgian-man just like Robin Van Persie being flying Dutch-man back in 2014 Fifa World Cup. 

Meanwhile, the English youngster scored his header on the 53rd minute to give his team a swift 3-1 lead before Vinicius Jr running past the experienced Fernandinho, who assisted Foden 2 minutes ago, with a dummy nutmeg and skills to make the scoreline 3-2.

However, the numerous misses the City players made in front of Thibaut Courtois's net will surely cost them in Santiago Bernabéu, the den of the most successful European team of the beautiful game.

Yet as the player of the semifinal first leg, Bernardo Silva, mentioned how the Citizens had beaten Los Blancos previously in both occasions of a Champions League knockout tie and challenged the kings of Europe on how he wants to be the king, the second leg on next Wednesday makes it even more anticipating and exciting.