Analysis: Guardiola's men keep cool in cauldron

Real Madrid and Manchester City have become familiar foes in the Champions League, defining this particular era of the competition by facing each other for the 15th time and the fifth consecutive campaign.

City faced a hostile Real crowd which made their feelings known before kick-off, jeering and whistling ex-Barcelona boss Pep Guardiola's name when it was read out by the stadium announcer.

But the Spaniard and his side will be highly satisfied in gaining a measure of revenge following their play-off stage defeat here in February, with Guardiola now losing only seven of his 28 meetings against his fierce foe.

City started nervously in the Spanish capital and went behind but showed excellent character in the cauldron of the Bernabeu to recover, keep their cool and see out the contest.

Academy product Nico O'Reilly never seems to put a foot wrong and scored a dream equaliser to drag his side back into the contest on 35 minutes, while defensively he won three tackles and contributed four important clearances.

The ever-reliable Erling Haaland made no mistake with his penalty to score his 55th Champions League goal, with no player managing more since his debut in the competition for RB Salzburg in 2019.

Jeremy Doku could have made it a more comfortable scoreline but saw his low shot pushed wide by Courtois at full stretch, and ultimately it did not matter.

City recovered from their shock defeat by Bayer Leverkusen last time out and climb to fourth, while they will be confident of claiming an all-important top-eight place with matches to come against Bodo/Glimt and Galatasaray.