Mbappé shreds sorry City's hope to underline Madrid's superiority

Pep Guardiola had asked his team to at least give the Santiago Bernabéu a fright; instead, they were the ones exposed to a terrifying truth, wearing a haunted hollow look.

- Sid Lowe

It is not just that Manchester City's Champions League campaign is over, a Kylian Mbappé hat-trick sending Real Madrid through; it is them. The team that Guardiola said was a machine for eight years is no more.

City's manager had said he was lying when he gave his team a 1% chance of going through, and so it proved: it was not even that high.

There was no comeback, not even a glimpse, of one. No epic, just the end. When they scored in the last minute, it was greeted with ironic cheers, this stadium continuing to laugh at them as they had done for some time now. The goal did not matter; the only bad news on a perfect night was the yellow card that means Jude Bellingham will miss the first leg against Bayer Leverkusen or Atlético Madrid. Real Madrid were superb, confirming that they are candidates for the competition they consider their own.

City just weren't. Carlo Ancelotti had said he didn't want to face them. It was all reputation, no reality. Too many things have gone wrong for too long; even winter surgery could not fix them. There was a reason they had to play this round at all and a reason they will play no more; this was the team that had conceded four to PSG and Sporting, three to Feyenoord, how could they not be beaten by Madrid? It was over from the start.