A smiling Cristiano Ronaldo adorns The National Sport cover on Saturday, July 25 after helping Real Madrid to a thumping win over Premier League side Manchester City.
Goals from Karim Benzema, Ronaldo, Pepe, and Denis Cheryshev did the damage for Madrid, with Yaya Toure’s penalty the only goal City could muster.
While City were arguably only at half-strength and Madrid fielded close to their best team, the result offers City manager Manuel Pellegrini a stark reality of how far his team has to go to match the very best in Europe.
That is the view of The National's European football correspondent Richard Jolly.
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