Federico Valverde nets first-half hat-trick as Real Madrid overpower Man City

By Andy Hampson, Press Association, Madrid

Federico Valverde scored a sensational first-half hat-trick as injury-hit Real Madrid overpowered Manchester City 3-0 in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie.

Much had been made of the Spanish giants’ lengthy casualty list for Wednesday’s clash against their familiar rivals at the Bernabeu, with the likes of Kylian Mbappe, Jude Bellingham and Rodrygo among the big-name absences.

Yet it merely provided the opportunity for captain Valverde to step up and the Uruguay midfielder ripped City apart with a clinical display of finishing.

He scored three goals in the space of 22 minutes and things might have been worse for Pep Guardiola’s side had Gianluigi Donnarumma not saved a second-half penalty from Vinicius Junior.

It rounded off a dismal two days for English sides in the Spanish capital after Tottenham’s 5-2 hammering by Atletico Madrid on Tuesday.

City, having gone into the tie as favourites, now face an uphill task in next week’s second leg at the Etihad Stadium.

The visitors actually started brightly and tried to take the game to Real.

Antoine Semenyo fired an early shot at Thibaut Courtois and the lively Jeremy Doku twice drove across the face of goal.

Nico O’Reilly also went close and Bernardo Silva volleyed wide as the visitors tried to exploit any perceived weakness in the Real side.

But the home side served warning as former City academy player Brahim Diaz forced a save from Donnarumma and it went unheeded.

The Premier League side were caught cold by a long ball from Courtois after 20 minutes which dropped over O’Reilly’s head and Valverde took it expertly in his stride.

He then glided past Donnarumma and finished brilliantly while off-balance from a tight angle.

City had barely had time to regroup before Valverde doubled his tally seven minutes later.

Valverde may have got lucky as a Vinicius pass deflected into his path but there was nothing fortunate about his touch as he set himself to drive a low left-footed shot beyond Donnarumma.

Valverde completed his brilliant treble before the break as City were again cut open on the counter, this time by Vinicius.

The ball reached Diaz, who cleverly lobbed Ruben Dias for Valverde to flick past Marc Guehi and smash home a volley.

City left the field shell-shocked and things threatened to get ugly after the restart as Diaz tested Donnarumma following a mazy run.

Semenyo did force a save from Courtois at the other end but a long ball from deep sent Vinicius racing into the area where he was brought down by Donnarumma.

The goalkeeper was booked and, much to City’s relief, guessed correctly to push away Vinicius’ resulting spot-kick to his left.

Yet the Madrid attacks kept coming with Arda Guler and Vinicius both shooting narrowly wide.

City did not give up hope and Erling Haaland might have scored but for a vital touch by Antonio Rudiger, while O’Reilly was denied by the feet of Courtois.