Manchester City are three games away from making history. And after the stunning rout of Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-finals, Pep Guardiola’s march toward a treble of trophies feels unstoppable.

“We are there. We can think about it, can visualise it,” the City manager said after his team’s 4-0 win at Etihad Stadium.

After drawing the first leg 1-1, Madrid’s undisputed kings of Europe were humbled and, but for the efforts of goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, the score line could have been so much worse for the 14-time champions.

City feel like an irresistible force as they close in on the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup titles. They were certainly too hot for Madrid to handle as Bernardo Silva scored twice in the first half, Manuel Akanji scored after the break and substitute Julian Alvarez struck in time added on to seal a 5-1 aggregate win.

Madrid have fought their way back from the brink on numerous occasions over the past two seasons, but this was too great a challenge.

After overrunning the defending European champions, City will be favoured to do the same to Inter Milan in the final in Istanbul on June 10.

A win against Chelsea on Sunday would secure a third straight league title and Manchester United stand in their way in the FA Cup final. United are the only English team to win the three main trophies in one season — doing so in 1999.

City have already overtaken their Manchester rivals as the dominant force in English football and can now emulate their greatest achievement.

City are going in search of their first Champions League title, while Guardiola is aiming to win it for a third time as a coach.

At times, it has seemed as though the pressure on Europe’s biggest stage was too big for a team that has been serial winners in domestic competition. While City’s quality has rarely been in question over Guardiola’s seven years in charge, their temperament in the Champions League has been.

Having been dominated for long periods by Madrid in the first leg last week, City took control from the start in front of its own fans.

Erling Haaland had two clear chances to score before Bernardo’s opening goal — twice seeing headers saved by Courtois. With the crowd roaring on every City challenge, it felt like a matter of time before the home team would find a breakthrough — and it came in the 23rd minute.

After denying Haaland twice, Courtois could not keep out Bernardo, who raced onto Kevin De Bruyne’s pass before firing in at the near post.

Having been passive for the opening 30 minutes, Madrid sprung into life and Toni Kroos hit the bar from around 25 meters.

It was a warning to City and moments later the home team was celebrating a second goal, with Bernardo the scorer again in the 37th.

Ilkay Gundogan burst into the box and when his shot was blocked, Bernardo was the quickest to react, heading the rebound beyond Militao on the line.

Guardiola won the Champions League twice with Barcelona, but has failed to add to that total with Bayern Munich and City.

This is only his second final since last winning the competition in 2011, having lost to Chelsea in 2021.

“It’s a beautiful night for us,” said Bernardo. “We knew it was going to be tough, but to beat this Madrid team 4-0 at home it was wonderful... and hopefully this time we can try to win it.”

They were better: Ancelotti

Manchester: Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti admitted they were beaten by the better side as they suffered a painful 4-0 demolition at Manchester City on Wednesday in their Champions League semi-final.

“They played better than us and deserved to win,” Ancelotti told reporters.

“They put a lot of pressure at the beginning, it worked out well for them because they made it very difficult for us to get the ball in play and they went two goals ahead.

“From then on, it was difficult to get back into the game. We tried in the second half... but it didn’t work out.”

Ancelotti admitted it was a painful night but said it was too soon to analyse what had gone wrong.

“Evaluating at this moment makes no sense,” he said.

“It is a defeat that hurts, it hurts a lot. But it can happen. We reached the semi-finals of the Champions League against a strong opponent, they played better.”

Reuters