Real Madrid’s forwards are so exhausted they have gone to the touchline to hydrate.

Bellingham has even asked for an inhaler -and that’s no exaggeration.

62′ Man City 0-1 Real Madrid (Agg: 3-4)

And another one, as Gvardiol slides to get the ball but doesn’t quite make it ahead of Bellingham.

Two City bookings in a couple of minutes.

60′ Man City 0-1 Real Madrid (Agg: 3-4)

We have the night’s second booking, as Grealish lunges in on Carvajal.

No complaints there.

58′ Man City 0-1 Real Madrid (Agg: 3-4)

Half-clearance by Nacho. The ball falls to Akanji on the edge of the box, and he drills a shot miles off-target.

It’s all a bit frenetic from City, which is needed to get the crowd involved – but it also feels a step away from Guardiola’s plan you imagine.

And the later it gets, the more frenetic City might be.

The temperature is going up again. City applying a lot of pressure and the crowd is getting behind them.

Madrid are looking vulnerable to crosses but playing so deeply at this stage, it isn’t going to be easy for Haaland, De Bruyne and the rest to get behind them.

Federico Valverde is tracking back to help out the booked Dani Carvajal but City are getting a lot of joy down that side.

The right-back is a brilliant asset in attack but can be a liability in defence for Real Madrid at times.

52′ Man City 0-1 Real Madrid (Agg: 3-4)

Talking about under pressure, Haaland threatens to bully Nacho into sending the ball into his own net. The defender just about turns to clear.

The follow-up effort is again thwarted by Lunin.

But the home crowd are getting involved now, and the hosts are finding a higher gear.

51′ Man City 0-1 Real Madrid (Agg: 3-4)

It’s also worth noting those combinations are coming down the Real right, where Carvajal – on a yellow – is being put under severe pressure as Bernardo and Grealish start to link-up better.

49′ Man City 0-1 Real Madrid (Agg: 3-4)

Two points here. Man City this half are finding neat combinations on the edge of the Madrid box that is working space. That is promising for the hosts.

Secondly, it’s rather frustration to see a cross float over Haaland’s head and the striker show no desire to follow the ball and collect it to continue the attack. I fear he expected De Bruyne to be behind him to do that – but he wasn’t there.

47′ Man City 0-1 Real Madrid (Agg: 3-4)

Good early intensions from Grealish, who gets the ball back from Rodri. His cross seeks Haaland but is eventually cleared for a corner.

Again the delivery is under Lunin’s bar but he deals with hit, as well as parrying Grealish’s follow-up.

46′ Man City 0-1 Real Madrid (Agg: 3-4)

Real Madrid get us back under way for the second half.

This is a huge 45 minutes on the way for these two.

Out come both teams for the second half.

Doesn’t look like any changes in personnel to the two side.

Watching Rodrygo’s goal a few times back now, the touch from Jude Bellingham in the build-up really is sensational.

And while Rodrygo’s initial effort comes off his shin, he’s clinical with his second go, which gives Ederson no chance.

Also a bit of a mess from Kyle Walker, who seems to get ahead of himself and the ball rather than dealing with the situation.

That said, it’s a high-quality moment and it is currently defining the pattern of this game.

Hard for Man City to play at the tempo Guardiola will want from them — ie pretty slow — when everybody in world football, probably including a few City players, feels they need to force the issue.

It took City until Madrid had scored to set-up camp around the Madrid box but too often things were rushed, or when they led to set-pieces, the deliveries were fairly easily dealt with.

I don’t think the fans had taken the result for granted here, but I do wonder if the performance level — which is not as high as usual – has caught them off guard a bit, and it leaves everybody looking around for the answers.

Fortunately for them, Guardiola normally has them.

A high-quality game with some eye-catching numbers…

HT: Man City 0-1 Real Madrid

• Possession: 63% – 37%
• Shots: 11 – 5
• On target: 3 – 3
• XG: 0.99 – 1.07
• Big chances: 2 – 2
• Successful duels: 19 – 29
• Possession lost: 64 – 48

You can see how hard Real are working defensively, as well as the quality of their attacking moments. Man City the ones in need of more?