On Wednesday night, players from Real Madrid and Manchester City’s center midfield joined together at the Premier League winners’ team hotel in the Spanish city.
This week’s lopsided 3-1 victory for the Spanish powerhouses at the Santiago Bernabeu was the most recent devastating example of Pep Guardiola’s team’s current state as a competitive team.
With a 6-3 aggregate score between the two teams, Kylian Mbappe’s hat-trick—which included an opening goal within four minutes—sends Manchester City out of the UEFA Champions League before the last-16 stage for the first time since the 2012–13 campaign.
Even though Manchester City and Real Madrid have developed a rivalry on and off the field over the years due to their repeated clashes at different levels of Europe’s top club competition, there was still a great deal of respect and affection between the two clubs at the end of the game.
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A recent revelation has disclosed the post-match supper between two players in the Spanish city, while television broadcasters recorded amicable exchanges with players such as Ederson, the goalkeeper for Manchester City, and Rodrygo, the forward for Real Madrid.
After Wednesday night’s match, Real Madrid and Croatia star Luka Modric went to City’s team hotel in the Spanish capital to have supper with his buddy, former teammate, and fellow citizen, Mateo Kovacic, according to Spanish news outlet El Desmarque.
The experienced Madrid player reportedly came to Manchester City’s headquarters at around one in the morning local time, after Kovacic’s return with his teammates on their club coach. The two then had a great time laughing and chatting over a few beers.
Between 2015 and 2019, the Manchester City midfielder and Modric made over 70 appearances for the Spanish powerhouse, which helped the two Croatian powerhouses win multiple UEFA Champions League titles together.
To put together the required recuperation and preparation work before their Premier League matchup with Liverpool on Sunday afternoon, Kovacic and the rest of the City team returned to Manchester on Thursday afternoon.