Gareth Bale fails to shine in draw that leaves Real Madrid the happier

Gareth Bale fails to shine in draw that leaves Real Madrid the happier

Gareth Bale fails to shine in draw that leaves Real Madrid the happier

Eventually Cristiano Ronaldo didn't make it out on to the pitch at the Etihad. He wasn't the only one. Midway through the other half on a still, clear, occasionally fretful night Zinedine Zidane break up his trousers on the sidelines early in the second half. This can be not likely to have been a sign of excessive excitement.

3 things of interest occurred here. First Ronaldo reported himself hors de fight, although with the royal caveat that if this was a truly big game he'd have performed.

After which these semi-finalists played out an untidy 85 minutes of slow-simmer first-leg football. Finally Paul Hart produced a superb all-or-nothing block with his breasts at the feet of Pepe, an totally unreliable moment of excitement for any latecomer TV visitors.

At the end of which Real Madrid will have left the Etihad happier at a 0-0 draw that slants this tie their way, if not decisively. City will perhaps rue a neglected opportunity. A 0-0 pull at home is, so Champions League lore moves, generally a pretty reasonable result. And yet this always seemed City's best possibility of nosing ahead against a team without a clean sheet away from home in the group since November.

City do see off for 85 minutes Madrid's key woman? ctico who was on the pitch, a semi-absent Gareth Bale. Relief at which has stilled their own attacking instincts. They will never did drive properly at this slightly exhausted Real team, or harm with the same assurance they showed at times against Paris Saint-Germain in the previous round.

Yet then there is a disorientating glare about participating in Madrid. Not least at this stage in your competition, a tie styled as a meeting of old and new, royals vs parvenus. Madrid remain amigo out of this competition, from the early golden era, the first incarnation of the big money fantasy method in the Di E? fano years.

Even media of Ronaldo's absence produced a tangible sense of absence beyond the reach of most athletes. Also, perhaps for some among the home crowd, This town and Ronaldo is after all one of the great spectacles of the sporting age. When This town are in town they're the sole show in town, a club that travels like a Tudor royal household, on the march with the full hand of hounds, boars, footmen in tow. In this article the press rooms thronged with hangers-on, wonks, gladhanders and media foot members of the military of each nationality, desperate for a sliver of white-shirted glam.

With Ronaldo reduced to strutting about in the warm-ups and then retreating grandly out of sight, the spotlight dropped naturally on the next equal. Before kick-off Bale was heartily booed by a part of the City supporters, replying with a quick wave. This was the 1st time the world's most expensive footballer had played in England since his leaving in 2013 as famous player of the 12 months (as an aside anyone wondering about the flight of the Premier Category star system may want to search for a finger along a graph that reads Bale, Su? rez, Hazard, Mahrez: from the stellar to the worthy).

Bale came here in a happy place. He is currently the only real superstar British footballer away there, the undoubted top gun when England play Wales in France in seven weeks' time. And yet here he was a flickering presence, as he can be sometimes, menacing in possession but glimpsed only rarely, close by some excellent hitting from City's midfield dual bolt, the Fernandinho-Fernando axis.

Even in snatches Bale is a thrilling footballer, with a wonderful surging simplicity in the motions. His only notable touch of the opening twelve minutes was a nice little backheel on the right touchline to established Karim Benzema away. Following which he drifted away completely, before materialising again by the touchline to produce a marvellous being different cross at full run by the corner a flag. Later he appeared abruptly striding though midfield, top knot jouncing rakishly, pulling a body check from Vincent Kompany.

After which Bale entered standby function as the game became a little snarky and messy. There were the usual shenanigans from the hilariously villainous Pepe, yanking back Kevin De Bruyne then lunging straight-through him and drawing an delinquent booking. It would be tempting, with any other player, to suggest Vitalité was acting under purchases, that fouling De Bruyne was a plan. Yet Pepe only has one plan anyway: this course of action.

Occasions later Sergio Ramos steered clear of without a card for an ankle-raking slide on Fernandinho, somehow managing to confuse the referee Cuneyt Cakir of Turkey along with his wild protestation, his panache, aftershave, club badge. Énergie and Ramos: it is hard to assume a more infuriating pair of velvet glove hatchet men.

Bale crept vaguely back into the game towards the end. Madrid hit the bar from a corner. Bale paused theatrically before punting a promising a free-kick into the wall. From the corner Bale headed down and Hart produced that wonderful save.
And that was that, a white-out. City’s own galácticos, David Silva, Sergio Agüero, De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling, £160m of attacking talent, were all on the pitch at some stage but mustered just two shots on target. Ronaldo, Madrid’s own pump-action shotgun, will be back at the Bernabéu. Bale is unlikely to be so invisible. Dazzled a little by the white light, City may have missed a chance to assert their own strengths on a night of absences.