It was a night of shocks in the Champions League quarterfinals, as Wolfsburg stunned Real Madrid, evidently suffering a Clasico hangover, with two first-half goals to win leg 2-0 in Germany.
Meanwhile, an eventful match in Paris saw Manchester City draw 2-2 at Paris Saint-Germain and head back to the Etihad with an away-goals edge in a battle of big-spending continental powers.
Two goals in eight first-half minutes from Wolfsburg were enough for the Bundesliga strugglers to stun Madrid.
The 10-time winners of the competition thus face an uphill task to progress to the last four.
Ricardo Rodriguez netted a penalty, before Maximilian Arnold doubled the advantage just moments later, becoming the first players to score past Madrid goalkeeper Keylor Navas in this year’s competition.
Four days on from a win at the Nou Camp with 10 men, Zinedine Zidane’s side looked shaky at the back and have it all to do in the return fixture in the Spanish capital next Tuesday.
It appeared as if Madrid would not be getting their way 70 seconds in when Cristiano Ronaldo was flagged for a marginal offside call when he collected Karim Benzema’s pass and turned home.
Moments later Gareth Bale was then denied what appeared a clear penalty after Luiz Gustavo clattered into his leg inside the area, although Benzema could have no complaints at not grabbing the opener moments later when he shot straight at Diego Benaglio in the Wolfsburg goal.
Wolfsburg, who currently sit eighth in the Bundesliga, were a threat on the counter, though, and Andre Schurrle was the catalyst for the opening goal – the first Navas has conceded in 738 minutes in the Champions League.
The winger appeared to kick his own foot as he swung his leg past Casemiro in the Madrid penalty area, but the referee saw enough contact to award the host a spot-kick, which Rodriguez converted.
Seven minutes later it was 2-0, Julian Draxler finding Henrique in space and from his cross Arnold stole a march on Sergio Ramos and finished first-time past Navas.
Zidane’s side pushed for an away goal as soon as they went two behind, Benzema heading wide and Toni Kroos drawing Benaglio into a save. Bale planted a 25-yard free-kick over the crossbar at the stroke of half-time, and Ronaldo missed the target with two attempts from Bale crosses in the second period.
In France, Fernandinho hit a deflected equaliser as City came from behind to hold PSG.
The Citizens looked to be running into trouble at the Parc des Princes after casually allowing Zlatan Ibrahimovic to cancel out a Kevin De Bruyne strike and falling behind to an Adrien Rabiot tap-in.
But after Ibrahimovic continued to atone for an early penalty miss by heading against the bar, Fernandinho took advantage of some poor PSG defending to net a vital second away goal.
It was a compelling encounter and City can take huge encouragement from their performance, aside from a couple of lapses which included Fernando’s error for PSG’s first goal.
