Man City matchwinner Silva hails ‘beautiful’ night

Manchester City’s man-of-the-match Bernardo Silva hailed their Champions League semi-final second leg thrashing of Real Madrid on Wednesday as a “beautiful” and “wonderful” night.

Silva said he was disappointed with his performance in last week’s 1-1 first leg draw in Madrid, so was thrilled to score the first two goals in the 4-0 win in Manchester that secured a 5-1 aggregate victory and a place in the Champions League final.

“It’s a beautiful night for us. We knew it was going to be tough. But to beat this Madrid team 4-0 at home, it was wonderful,” the Portuguese midfielder said pitch-side.

“A wonderful feeling to be in the final again, and hopefully this time we can try and win it,” added Silva, whose team lost the Champions League final to Chelsea two years ago.

“My performance in the first game in Madrid wasn’t the one I wanted, and I wanted to try and compensate for that because I didn’t feel very good at all after the first game. And here today, I had to do better for my team mates and the fans.

“We were very resilient, we very passionate and organised at the same time. I’m so, so happy with that performance.”

Silva effectively won the game for City with his first-half brace, one a shot, the other a header.

“I’m small, but I’m good with my head!,” he laughed.

The English side will face Inter Milan in the final.

“They look very strong, very organised defensively and quick on the counter-attack,” Silva said of the Italian side.

“It’s going to be tough, but we’re going to fight.”

Real Madrid defender Dani Carvajal was gracious in defeat.

“The opponents were better than us in the second leg, they have outplayed us by a large margin. They were a superior opponent,” he told Spain’s Movistar Plus TV.

“We lacked a little … I wouldn’t say attitude, but we closed back down too early. After the break we had our best minutes. We’ll come back stronger and we’ll work next year to come back here.

“We knew that they are very strong at home, but after the sensations of the first leg we all thought we could play a better game. We have very young players, with the desire to achieve a lot of success.”