City share Champions League points in hard-fought draw with Real Madrid

The Blues found ourselves a goal down at the break after Linda Caicedo completed a swift Real Madrid counter in the 29th minute.

Just like our stalemate at Bayern Munich, the Barclays Women’s Super League champions showed tenacity and togetherness to find an equaliser. 

Shaw’s strike on the half turn on 51 minutes means City maintain our unbeaten record in 2026/27 as our attention now turns to our Etihad clash with Arsenal. 

WHAT HAPPENED

With both sides picking up a point in their opening fixture, City and Real Madrid both came into Matchweek 2 looking to build on positive starts in the UEFA Women’s Champions League.

The visitors, unbeaten in all competitions ahead of the action, looked dangerous from the off, but City would go closest to an early opener when Mary Fowler crashed a header against the crossbar nine minutes in.

The Australia international got a clean header on Alex Greenwood’s free-kick from the left but saw her effort come back off the underside of the crossbar, but not over the line.

Momentum continued to shift with City’s next best chance a looping Shaw header which had to be tipped over the bar by Merle Frohms.

However, almost instantly at the other end of the pitch, the visitors would take a lead into the break when Caicedo broke down the right-hand side and fired a low shot into the far corner.

The second half flew by as both teams pushed for an all-important second. Substitute Beth Mead almost nudged City ahead with a close-range header as we entered the final 20 minutes.

At the other end, Yamashita pulled off a handful of heroic saves to keep Madrid at bay.

The visitors thought they’d stole three points on the brink of full-time, but referee Silvia Gasperotti blew the whistle after she obstructed Mead from getting the ball before Silvia Cristobal’s strike from the edge of the City box flew into the top-left corner.

City had one last-ditch effort as Hemp and Mead went close to scoring the match-winning goal, but we had to settle for a point as we extend our unbeaten run in all competitions to six. 

EIGHT

Shaw was already City’s top European scorer heading into tonight’s game.

With eight goals in the UEFA Women’s Champions League, she’s now two ahead of Georgia Stanway - our previous record scorer on six.

Our number nine.

HOW WE LINED UP

CITY XI | Yamashita, Casparij (Charles 72’) Rose, Greenwood, Wamser, Blindkilde Brown (Coffey 63’), Hasegawa, Fowler (Mead 63’), Fujino (Clinton 63’), Hemp, Shaw.

SUBS | Cumings, Moorhouse, Charles, Beney, Prior, Lewis, Burdon.

REAL MADRID XI | Frohms, Eva Navarro, Lakrar, Andersson, Cristobal, Elisa, Caruso (Dorado 68’), Andreia (Dabritz 64’), Athenea (Keukelaar 64’), Caicedo (Bruun 83’), Schroder (Beerensteyn 64’)

SUBS | Laia, Noe, Pau, Mendez, Angeldahl, Holmgaard, Oihane.

AS A RESULT

City have two points from our first two League Phase results.

UP NEXT

Jeglertz’s team now have just two days to prepare for our huge Barclays Women’s Super League clash with Arsenal.

We welcome the Gunners to a special matchday at the Etihad Stadium, with kick-off set for 16:30 (UK).

Tickets for the game are still available, click here to get yours!