At Madrid

[gavin]

CITY XI: Ederson, Khusanov, Stones, Dias (c), Gvardiol, Nico, Gundogan, Bernardo, Foden, Savinho, Marmoush

Subs: Ortega Moreno, Carson, Ake, Kovacic, Haaland, Grealish, Doku, De Bruyne, Nunes, Lewis, McAtee

Three new boys start but no Haaland

[KunDB]

I love it. The team is full of young legs and speedy legs at that. Sorely needed. Well done Pep, win or lose these players will gain valuable experience for the future.

Marmousch, Nico and especially Khusanov really excite me as massive talents going forward.


C' mon City.

[reddishblue]

Haaland jarred his knee at the weekend so probably protecting him a bit.

Real will not have expected this line up either, it's very attacking.

[gavin]

Awful defending and Eddie in no man's land again. Recurring nightmares.

[Hesperus]

Didn't expect to go through but hope we can keep it respectable. 2-0 down after 35 mins isn't looking good though.

They are really dominating us both technically and physically. We're soft touches.

[gavin]

Piss poor at the back and toothless up front. Is it even worth risking Haaland or KDB at this stage? We will need them in the league matches.

[KunDB]

This has been painful tonight, very painful.

Why on earth is Ake standing right behind and watching Foden, yes Phil Foden, trying to defend against world class Mbappe who is looking for a hat trick.

Time to shake up and rebuild this defence in the summer. Too timid, to stand back and watch and to physically weak.

Get rid of the injury room players and expand the squad, e.g. for a back up up front when Haaland is injured.

Never seen a more one-sided game.

[Hesperus]

They are showing us just how far we've regressed.

They were similar to us a few seasons ago. Modric and Kroos in MF, they looked old and leggy. They've invested heavily in youth, power and pace. We'll need to do the same if we are to complete. You can't tell we spent 150 million in the winter window.

FA cup to play for but this team has no passion or bottle.

[Swiss]

As soon as I saw the line up I knew we wouldn't be competitive in the middle

[gavin]

We went from doing nearly everything right to doing nearly everything wrong in 4 days. It was a truly abysmal performance from front to back. Very rarely am I really quite relieved to come away with a 3-1 defeat. But I think that puts a very generous reflection on things for us.

[Stephen Paul]

disappointing night in Madrid , end of an Era ?

FA Cup now our main aim this season     

[Hesperus]

McNulty from the bbc sticking the knife in and then twisting it here.

The red press must be loving this. Waiting over a decade to be able to write stuff like this.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/clyrn753n4lo

Parts I agree with other parts are just gloating.

[gavin]

We thrashed Madrid a couple of years ago at home. In a couple of years we could be thrashing them again. End of an era my arse.

[Swiss]

Must have been injuries forcing that team selection, cause no way that's a tactical decision based on a fully fit squad, especially how well the team played against toon.