Real Madrid played a brilliant second half at the Etihad Stadium but failed to score a goal to beat Manchester City in the first leg of the semifinals of the Champions League.
Los Blancos missed Cristiano Ronaldo, who failed a late fitness test, and also saw Karim Benzema leave the pitch injured at half-time.
Despite all these problems, Zinedine Zidane men dominated City in the second half and had several chances to get the victory, but Joe Hart made two amazing saves to prevent Los Merengues from scoring.
In the first half, the hosts were a bit brighter, exerting a high pressure on their rival and forcing Los Merengues to make several mistakes.
Yet, Pepe and Sergio Ramos were superb, and the Citizens barely had any real chances to score. Kevin De Bruyne fired the hosts’ most dangerous shot in the first half, but Daniel Carvajal blocked it.
Right before the break, Pepe found Benzema inside the Manchester City box, but the Frenchman could only fire over the crossbar.
Los Blancos were more attacking in the second half as they started to move the ball from left to right. However, they didn’t have a serious opportunity to score until in the last 15 minutes.
Casemiro came close to scoring as he met a corner from Toni Kroos and headed to the bottom corner, but Joe Hart was brilliant to save it with his left foot.
Real Madrid had a wonderful chance a couple of minutes later as Pepe found himself unmarked inside the box, but the Portuguese shot straight at Hart.
In the last minutes, both teams seemed to be happy with the goalless draw and focussed on defending.
