City hit back from nowhere to expose Real's fragility

If this is to prove the last game Pep Guardiola manages at the Bernabeu, what a way to go.

- RICHARD JOLLY

And if it ends up as Xabi Alonso's final match in charge of Real Madrid, what a quick, undignified end. A match that unravelled like a reign that began well.

An eight-minute meltdown brought Real a second successive home defeat. First Celta Vigo triumphed at the Bernabeu, now Manchester City have. A Real team with a mere two victories in eight games represent a club with a culture of impatience. Alonso could become its latest victim.

"It's not up to me," he admitted. "I am looking forward to the next game." If he gets one.

But as he was beaten by a mentor, Guardiola's seventh win at the Bernabeu may have been his most unlikely, for all Real's problems. City exited the Champions League in Madrid last season and revived their chances of a top-eight finish in the league phase this year; the damage done by defeat to Bayer Leverkusen was repaired in spectacular fashion.

Guardiola did not get carried away or see his side as potential champions. "I have been here many times in the last five years and we played better than today and didn't win," he said. "The reality is that in the last stages we have to do better."

But he smiled as he said it. "Winning in Bernabeu is a big, big task," he said.

He had a comeback to savour. It gave Erling Haaland the status of the match-winner in Madrid; a player who was long expected to join Real instead made it to the Bernabeu to condemn them to defeat.

But perhaps the match revolved around Nico O'Reilly. Arguably at fault when Rodrygo put Real ahead, he went on to level. "He makes mistakes but he tries and that is top," added Guardiola.