Manchester City star wowed for an ‘Absolutely magnificent’ display despite Real Madrid defeat

Manchester City right-back Kyle Walker delivered an “absolutely magnificent” display for Pep Guardiola’s side on Wednesday night.

This is according to Jonathan Woodgate, who was commentating on the Champions League semi-final second leg on BBC Radio 5 Live.

The £45million defender enjoyed a battle for the ages with Real Madrid forward Vinicius Jr, regularly getting the better of him.

Vinicius could not get in behind Walker for the most part. And even when he did, the City man’s recovery speed ensured he’d come out on top.

In the 63rd minute, the 31-year-old went down. It looked as though he would be going off, but he got up and bravely battled on.

However, Pep Guardiola had to replace Walker in the 70th minute after an accidental collision with Vinicius Jr.

The City star appeared to have taken a blow to his ankle. The stretcher was called out, but he got up and walked off.

“This is big,” said Woodgate (4/5/22, 21:30).

“Joao Cancelo is not the most natural defender and not as quick as Kyle Walker.

“He has been absolutely magnificent. He has been absolutely incredible, he is obviously not 100 percent fit.”

City took the lead in the game on 73 minutes, Bernardo Silva setting up Riyad Mahrez for a fantastic finish.

But in the final seconds of normal time, Brazilian Rodrygo set up a grandstand finish cutting the aggregate deficit to 5-4.

More drama was to follow as Rodrygo headed another in stoppage time to level the tie at 5-5.

And in the opening minutes of the first half, Karim Benzema completed the incredible comeback scoring a penalty to lead the game 3-1 and 6-5 on aggregate.