Haaland's Late Joy, Mbappé Absence, and Rudiger's Fire in City’s 2-1 win over Real Madrid

Matchday drama: City edge Madrid 2-1

Norwegian Erling Haaland, Manchester City's striker, expressed great happiness after his side beat Real Madrid 2-1 on Wednesday, in the sixth round of the group stage of the UEFA Champions League tonight.

And Haaland said the match was tough and chaotic, but points arrived at a key timely moment.

Haaland told TNT Sports: "It's hard to play here; this stadium is very tough. The game was chaotic, and we couldn't control it completely. In the end we won, and I am very happy."

Added: "This is a stadium you always want to play in, and these are the matches you want to play. With the new Champions League format you get more matches, and that's a beautiful thing, and I like it."

And about the importance of this win after the loss to Bayer Leverkusen: "Things could have been completely different today if we hadn't won due to our defeat to Leverkusen, so this victory is very important. Two matches remain, and we must finish strong; we hope to be among the top eight to qualify directly."

About Mbappé's absence: "We know their injuries, and we have injuries too, but they have many. You never wish for an injury to any player, and we expected Mbappé to play. I expected to face him today. Absence of a player like him won't make you happy because you always want to face the best, but it gives you a small psychological boost."

About physical duels: "You always want to face the best players, and after just one minute Asensio tried to push me and engage in contact, and I personally like that. With Antonio Rudiger we had great duels before, but today he was more aggressive than necessary, which gave us the penalty."

On Arsenal's chase: "I don't like talking much about this, because we must focus on ourselves only, and Manchester City has done this for 10 years; we don't think about others but focus on ourselves. Now we must focus on Sunday's game; who will we face? Crystal Palace? The games are coming thick and fast, the schedule is very packed, and the most important thing is to stay ready and play games one after another, and we hope to win on Sunday."

Punchline 1: If goals were rent, Haaland would own the stadium by now—and we’d still be paying the light bill.

Punchline 2: Rudiger was so fired up that even the ball filed a restraining order.