It sees us join Bayern Munich’s win over Barcelona in 2013, Real Madrid’s defeat of Bayern in 2014 and Liverpool’s beating of Barcelona in 2019.
It was also Real Madrid’s joint biggest defeat in any round of the competition, tied with their 0-4 loss against Liverpool in March 2009.
Goals from Bernardo Silva (2), Manuel Akanji and Julian Alvarez made it an unforgettable night at the Etihad Stadium.
It books our second Champions League final in three seasons, where we will face Inter in Istanbul on 10 June.
Below we’ll take a look at several of the key statistics that tell the story of Wednesday night’s victory…
Raining goals
Our 31 goals in the UEFA Champions League this season is more than we have ever scored in the competition before.
It eclipses our total of 29 in last season’s competition and 25 when we last reached the final in 2020/21.
Erling Haaland has led the way in front of goal for the Blues, finding the net 12 times in his 10 matches. Julian Alvarez, Riyad Mahrez and Bernardo Silva have all scored three each.
Bernardo himself became the third player to score 2+ goals in a UEFA Champions League semi-final match against Real Madrid, after Lionel Messi (2011) and Robert Lewandowski (2013).
We won’t match the highest tally in Champions League history however, with Barcelona scoring 45 in 1999/2000 when the format included 17 matches, as opposed to the current 13. The highest scorers under the current format are Bayern Munich, scoring 43 times in 2019/20.
Early dominance
It took Real Madrid, the holders of the Champions League, 24 minutes to complete a pass in our half.
That came after kick-off following Bernardo Silva’s 23rd minute opener. The Spanish giants completed just 49 passes in the opening 25 minutes, while City had played 196.
The Blues could already have scored twice before Bernardo’s strike, if not for the heroics of Thibaut Courtois in the Real Madrid goal.
By the end of the game, we had an xG of 2.82 compared to Real Madrid’s 0.47. At half time, that total was 1.59 v 0.01 with City having had 13 shots and Madrid just one.
The first half also saw us have 25 touches in the opposition box, and our visitors have just two in ours.
We enjoyed 71.9% of the ball in the first period and completed 352 passes compared to Madrid’s 137.
2-0 up at the break and deserving of more, this was one of the great 45 minute performances of Guardiola’s iconic era.
Imperious home record
We have won 32 of our last 34 home games in all competitions (D1 L1), winning each of the last 15 since a 1-1 draw with Everton in December.
Our home unbeaten record in the Champions League has now extended to 26 matches, more than any English team has previously achieved.
Our last defeat in a European match at the Etihad Stadium came way back in September 2018, when Lyon were the visitors for a group stage fixture.
Since then, we have won 24 and drawn two of our Champions League games in Manchester.
We still have a long way to go to match the overall record set by Barcelona.
The Catalan club went 38 matches unbeaten at the Camp Nou between September 2013 and November 2020, winning 34 of those.
Pep’s finals record
Our boss has now reached the Champions League final for the fourth time having previously managed two while at Barcelona.
Carlo Ancelotti (5), the current Real Madrid coach, is the only manager to reach more in the history of the European Cup/Champions League.
Guardiola became the quickest manager to 100 Champions League wins when the final whistle sounded. He took 160 games to reach the total, 20 fewer than Carlo Ancelotti and 24 better than Sir Alex Ferguson.
Should we top off another impressive campaign with victory in Istanbul, Guardiola will become only the fourth manager to have won the European Cup on at least three occasions.
Ancelotti leads that ranking with four, while Bob Paisley and Zinedine Zidane have three titles each.
Champions League stats so far this season
Erling Haaland is the leading scorer in the Champions League’s leading scorer this season with 12 goals. He is four ahead of Mo Salah in second and appears certain to win the Golden Boot.
Kevin De Bruyne’s seven assists is the best in the competition, one ahead of Vinicius Junior and two ahead of Inter’s Federico Dimarco.
Our 31 goals is the most in the competition this year, with Real Madrid second on 26.
Meanwhile, Inter, our opponents in the final, have the meanest defence in Europe. They have kept eight clean sheets from their 12 matches, with City on seven.
