Man City turn focus to Champions League qualification after Real Madrid humbling | OneFootball

Manchester City set their sights on returning to the Champions League next season after their latest challenge was ruthlessly ended by Kylian Mbappe and Real Madrid.

Mbappe scored a brilliant and devastating hat-trick as the holders powered into the last 16 with a convincing 3-1 win in the second leg of their play-off tie at the Bernabeu Stadium on Wednesday.

It completed a 6-3 aggregate success and was another low point in a frustrating campaign for City, who now look set for a rebuild in the summer.

With hopes of winning a fifth successive Premier League title also long since gone, the chief objective for the remainder of the season is ensuring top-level European football next term.

Manager Pep Guardiola said: “Yes, of course (it is the main target). The FA Cup is there too but now we are out of the Champions League and we have 13 games in the Premier League to be in the top four or five, I don’t know, to try to be here again.”

The odds had been against City progressing but they did travel to Spain with a little hope after going toe-to-toe with the record 15-time winners in the first leg at the Etihad Stadium.

City had led 2-1 at home only to concede twice late on, but any prospect of a fightback in Madrid seemed over before kick-off when it emerged Erling Haaland was not fit to start.

Their chances were then completely extinguished by Mbappe, who struck after just four minutes and added two more either side of the break in a clinical display of finishing.

City hardly threatened all night before mustering a stoppage-time consolation through Nico Gonzalez after an Omar Marmoush free-kick hit the bar.

It has been some comedown for City after the heady heights of recent years, not least the treble of 2023 when they beat Real en route to Champions League glory.

“We were not good enough,” said defender Ruben Dias. “We shake hands and we look forward.

“We have a lot to improve, we have to be better. The disappointment is maybe heavier than usual because we don’t like to lose, we don’t like to be in this position.

“It’s not just that we’ve got used to winning every year, that’s just our mentality, our way of being. It’s the air we breathe.

“As such, it hurts more. We don’t take it lightly but the only way to actually improve and the only way to look forward is to accept what happened, and here we were not good enough.”

City do still have two more opportunities to win silverware this season in the FA Cup and, in the summer, the Club World Cup.

Yet sitting fourth in the table ahead of Sunday’s clash with leaders Liverpool, they still have much to do to ensure Champions League football next term.

“We need to be honest about it; it’s our main target,” said Dias.