You could feel the force drain out of Josko Gvardiol. As he slid past Kylian Mbappe in 4k slow motion, you could read it on his face, existential questions flitting through his mind as his body went one way and his opponent the other: 'Why me? Why us? Why him?'
Rodrygo had poked in Kylian Mbappe through on goal and Gvardiol had been the closest man in Manchester City burgundy. He had had to react, committing himself to blocking Mbappe at the near post -- a sensible enough decision, on paper, considering Mbappe's affection towards roof-of-the-net first-post finishes. On paper.
Mbappe dropped a shoulder, and that was it for that theory. As the forward shifted balance to his right with an ease that's unsettling (and curiously underrated), Gvardiol lost his. One-on-one now with Ederson, he gave him the eyes and finished... near post. It was Mbappe saying, at time-warp speed: 'You can do whatever you want, I'll still do whatever I want.'
If Gvardiol had thought that was adding salt to the wound, Mbappe had more in store. As he wheeled away in celebration, he turned around, pointed at the prone City defender, and mimicked a sliding action with his hand. 'Did you see him go whoosh, LMAO'.
Kylian Mbappé really stared down at Josko Gvardiol and pointed at him as he was laying on the ground after Mbappé dropped the defender and scored �� pic.twitter.com/NILPqQd8sE
- ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) February 19, 2025
Like a schoolground baller, Mbappe was simply showing off by this point, but it didn't even feel cruel. That'll hurt Pep Guardiola and City. More than the toying, the indifferent ease with which it was accepted by everyone watching will sting. The Bernabeu wasn't roaring in the manner of a crowd celebrating the spanking of a hated rival, it was simply laughing along with their newest megastar as if it was just another day in Galactico-land.
The goal itself would have hurt, for it was prime Guardiola, a move that had had the swiftness of thought and surety of touch that this edition of City simply can't seem to muster.
Ferland Mendy had received the ball from Thibaut Courtois, waited a second for City to shift to Madrid's left, before playing it back to a deep-lying Aurelien Tchouameni. Under pressure, he switched it cleanly out to Rodrygo, who gathered it at feet with the silkiest of touches. Cutting in, he played it out to captain and stand-in right back Fede Valverde, who played it immediately inside to Jude Bellingham. A touch and a 90 degree turn later, Bellingham played Vinicius Jr in down the inside right channel. Unbothered, he played it across the face of the goal, just behind Rodrygo: who checked, drew in Abdukodir Khusanov and toe-poked it forward to Mbappe. Cue existential dread and casual mocking.
Having already scored one with a delightful chip after way-too-easily bullying Ruben Dias as he ran on to a route-one ball, this was Mbappe's and Madrid's second. It might as well have been their 200th. The game was done, and yet there were two more goals to come. Mbappe would make it three with nonchalant ease, sweeping in a perfect left foot finish to the far post, and count out the number of goals he'd scored in dramatic fashion.
City would score a consolation goal that was non-celebrated with such painful silence that the referee would be confused for a moment. None of what followed that second goal mattered, though, really.
For as Gvardiol slid past, so did City, hapless and hopeless, a champion side reduced to a set of training cones, a brutally casual way to announce the potential end of one of the all-time great footballing dynasties, an anti-climax set to the background music of Kylian Mbappe's cackle.
Which is why that goal, that celebration, is our Moment of the Champions League mid-week.