Manchester City were knocked out of the Champions League following an impressive performance from Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe.
Mbappe scored a fantastic hat-trick to lead the defending champions to a 3-1 win in the second leg of their match against City on Wednesday, sealing a 6-3 victory on aggregate.
Struggling without the injured Erling Haaland, City found it hard to make an impact at the revamped Bernabeu Stadium against an inspired Mbappe-led Real Madrid.
Nico Gonzalez did manage to score a consolation goal in stoppage time after an Omar Marmoush free-kick hit the crossbar, but the game was already out of reach with Mbappe stealing the show.
The World Cup winner from France was clinical, scoring early in the fourth minute and adding two more goals before and after halftime, as City’s lackluster campaign in Europe’s elite competition came to an end.
This marked City's earliest exit since the 2012-13 season and added to a disappointing year for the team.
For Real Madrid, the victory served as a strong message to the rest of Europe that despite a slow start and recent struggles domestically, they are still serious contenders for a 16th Champions League title.
The night started poorly for City as top scorer Haaland was unable to start the game.
Despite Manager Pep Guardiola's claims, Haaland was clearly still bothered by a knee injury suffered in the previous game against Newcastle.
With key players like Haaland, De Bruyne, and Grealish on the bench, City looked to Marmoush, who scored a hat-trick in the last match, to lead the attack.
But City's task became even harder when Federico Valverde's long ball found Mbappe, who took advantage of a mistake by Ruben Dias to lob Ederson from outside the box.
To make matters worse, John Stones got injured and had to be substituted early in the game.
Real Madrid seized the opportunity to extend their lead and created several dangerous chances.
Despite a brief surge from City, Real's dominance was clear as they controlled the game, eventually winning comfortably.
As the game progressed, Mbappe continued to impress, scoring his third goal with a powerful shot from distance, capping off a stellar performance.
Even though City fans had little to cheer about, they sarcastically applauded a late attempt from Real Madrid.
City did manage to score a goal in added time through Gonzalez, but it was too little, too late.