The defender sent an unstoppable drive from distance into the far corner of the hosts’ net to hand City the lead in the first leg of our quarter-final tie.
We would ultimately have to settle for a 3-3 draw with Madrid responding around ten minutes from time, but the tie remains finely poised ahead of the return fixture at the Etihad next week.
And Gvardiol was delighted to grab a maiden strike for City in such an important match, as we extended our unbeaten run in the Champions League to 22 matches at the Santiago Bernabeu.
“I’m happy for my first goal for City, especially against a great opponent,” the Croatian told TNT Sports.
“I’m happy. The first touch was not that good but, in the end, I thought ‘well I’m just going to hit it and see what happens’.
“What a game. It was the first time for me to play here at this stadium. It was an amazing atmosphere, and we take the result and look forward to the game at home.”
City and Madrid faced off in each of the last two seasons’ Champions League semi-finals, with Los Blancos coming out on top in 2021/22.
However, Guardiola’s men responded in style last year, with an incredible 4-0 triumph at the Etihad seeing us ruthlessly put our opponents to the sword en route to beating Inter in the final.
But Gvardiol and his team-mates are poised for another stern test next Wednesday as our defence of Europe’s elite competition continues.
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He added: “Last season I faced them [Real Madrid] with RB Leipzig and this is a different team.
“I enjoyed playing, we knew it would be difficult but that’s our quality to play with the ball and without it too.
“First we have Luton on Saturday, so we need to focus on that first.”
