City actually started the game strongly, with Jeremy Doku looking a real threat down the left flank, but were undone by two goals in seven minutes that put Madrid in charge of the tie by the half-hour mark. Thibaut Courtois' long ball forward to Valverde caught out Nico O'Reilly, allowing the Uruguayan to charge towards goal, and while Gianluigi Donnarumma came steaming out, he could only watch in dismay as the Madrid captain touched the ball around him before poking into an empty net.
Valverde went on to add his second after good work from Vinicius Jr down the left, the Brazilian's pass taking a nick off Ruben Dias to fall for Valverde to stride forwards and power a low shot across goal and past Donnarumma. There was still time for more misery for City just before half-time as Valverde completed his hat-trick in some style, the midfielder touching the ball over Marc Guehi and then confidently slotted home to make it a miserable opening 45 minutes for the Cityzens.
Guardiola brought on Tijjani Reijnders for Savinho for half-time but the change had little impact and Madrid ought to have made it 4-0 early in the second half as another long ball forward sent Vincius running through on goal, only for him to be brought down by Donnarumma for a penalty. The Brazilian dusted himself down to take the kick, but was denied as Donnarumma dived to his left to block.
More changes followed as Guardiola sent on Rayan Ait-Nouri, Rayan Cherki and Omar Marmoush in a bid to try and find at least one goal to take back to the Etihad Stadium, and Courtois saved well from O'Reilly in the closing stages, but City couldn't find a way past the Belgian goalkeeper and head back to Manchester with their Champions League hopes hanging by a thread.
GOAL rates City's players from the Bernabeu...
