The most prestigious tournament of UEFA – the Champions League is being held in a new format this season. Out of the 36 teams participating in the group stage, 24 advanced to the playoffs. The teams that made it to the quarter-finals from the strong eight qualified directly. The remaining 16 teams had to participate in the qualifying matches to qualify.
The only Uzbek football player participating in this tournament – Abduqodir Husanov's team “Manchester City” faced “Real” in the qualifying matches. After losing 2:3 to the reigning champions at home, Josep Guardiola's team lost again in the return match in Madrid with a score of 1:3.
The significant aspect for us is that Abduqodir Husanov played in the playoff stage of the UEFA Champions League for the first time. This was the international debut of our 20-year-old defender in the “Manchester City” squad.
Moreover, Abduqodir became the second youngest player to debut against “Real” in the match at the “Santiago Bernabeu” stadium during the Champions League playoff stage. At the time of the match, our legionnaire was 20 years and 356 days old.
The previous record was set in 2014 when “Schalke” player Kaan Ayhan played at “Real”'s home stadium at the age of 19 years and 128 days.
It is worth noting that although Abduqodir Husanov did not allow Vinicius Junior to score as expected by the fans during the match, the entire defense line of the “citizens” could not stop Kylian Mbappe.
The French star scored three goals in the match, proving once again that he is in excellent sporting form.
Kylian Mbappe equaled Lionel Messi's record for scoring goals against teams managed by Josep Guardiola in the Champions League. The Argentine world champion had embarrassed the Spanish specialist's teams seven times during his playing days in Europe in the continent's most prestigious international tournament. After his hat-trick, Mbappe also brought his total goals against Guardiola's teams to seven.
Josep Guardiola himself acknowledged that “Real” is stronger than his team.
- “Real Madrid” is a wonderful club and a deserving team to advance to the next stage. We could not provide sufficient resistance to this team to reach the quarter-finals. This is a bitter experience, and we must accept it and strive to earn the right to participate in the Champions League again next season.
“Real” is currently one of the main contenders for winning this tournament, but we must not forget that there are still strong clubs left in the tournament,” said Josep Guardiola.
Now the “citizens” will focus all their attention on securing a place in the top four of the English Premier League and winning the FA Cup.
Since moving to “Manchester City” on January 20, Abduqodir Husanov has celebrated his debuts in three prestigious competitions – the English Premier League, the FA Cup, and the UEFA Champions League playoffs.
