'They were not dangerous' - Antonio Rudiger critical of Man City's performance at Real Madrid

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'They were not dangerous' - Antonio Rudiger critical of Man City's performance at Real Madrid

Real Madrid defender Antonio Rudiger has claimed that Manchester City 'were not dangerous' in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final on Tuesday.

A first-half beauty from Vinicius Junior was cancelled out by a strike of similar calibre from Kevin De Bruyne after the interval, though replays suggest this equaliser should not have stood as the ball went off the pitch during the previous phase of play.

Man City had the most of the opening stages before Vinicius broke the deadlock, while their own wonder-goal came against the run of play in a testing second half for Pep Guardiola's men.

Rudiger had been tasked with man-marking Erling Haaland and for much of the evening kept the Norwegian striker quiet with his trademark wind-up tactics.

Speaking to beIN Sports post-match, Rudiger believed not only that Real Madrid did enough to win the game, but they excelled in nullifying Man City's main threats.

"They got the goal quite late so we feel like we could have had more but it's not a problem, the tie is definitely on and we can go to Manchester with confidence," Rudiger said.

"At the end of the day they were not dangerous. They had a lot of possession, we knew this would happen, but they were not dangerous. The goal is quality from De Bruyne."

Rudiger was then asked if he was confident of securing a result in the second leg at the Etihad Stadium next Wednesday.

"We are Real Madrid, we are always confident," he simply replied.