Manchester City will take a slender lead into their Champions League semi-final second leg against Real Madrid after a sensational game at the Etihad Stadium.

Pep Guardiola’s side were 4-3 winners but, somehow, were left to rue a number of other big chances. They were punished by the ruthless visitors who, thanks to Karim Benzema and Vinicius Junior, were able to stay within touching distance of their opponents.

Kevin De Bruyne opened the scoring inside two minutes with the fastest goal in Champions League semi-final history before Gabriel Jesus doubled the lead nine minutes later. An excellent Benzema volley – which came out of nothing – halved the deficit to make it 2-1 at half-time.

There was much more of the same in the second period and it took Phil Foden just seven minutes to restore his side’s two-goal lead. Although, that lasted all of two minutes as Vinicius finished off a brilliant run with an extremely cool finish.

City came again as Bernardo Silva sent a rocket beyond Thibaut Courtois and into the top corner to make it 4-2 but Benzema ensured their lead would be cut to just the single goal for the second leg. After Aymeric Laporte was adjudged to have handled the ball inside the penalty area, the Real Madrid striker held his nerve to chip his spot kick past the diving Ederson.

The two teams will do battle next Wednesday at the Bernabeu to determine which side will play in the Champions League is just over a month’s time.

Kareem Benzema Record

After his hat-trick at Chelsea and brace tonight v Man City, Karim Benzema is the first player in Champions League history to score as many as five goals away from home in the knockout stages against clubs from a single nation in a season.
Karim Benzema has now scored more UCL semi-final goals (7) than Lionel Messi (6).
With 14 goals, Benzema went level with Lionel Messi’s best UCL season, which was the 2011-12 Champions League season.