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The peak that Pep Guardiola has been building this club towards, and a point that European football has long been leading towards. Manchester City have not yet won the Champions League or the treble, but they passed the most difficult challenge in eliminating the defending champions, and did so with a 4-0 victory that went beyond easy. The first half-hour was perhaps Guardiola’s finest spell of football in Europe, and maybe the best ever by an English club on this stage. It will surely be seen as the statement performance should City go and finally lift the trophy in Istanbul, as they reach the stage for the second time. Real Madrid, of all clubs, were humiliated. The entire game has been left trailing in City’s wake. Internazionale are going to need something close to a miracle to beat them, such is City’s level. It is why so many referred to this as the real final. City ended up reaching Istanbul without much of a struggle of all. They have only gone behind in games - in any competition - three times in the last four months. This just never looked like being another of those. From the very start of the game, City came out ferociously determined to ensure they couldn’t possibly have a repeat of last season’s elimination. It was a storm. The manner they came at Madrid, and the way that Thibaut Courtois initially performed miracles of his own to stop them, briefly made it seem like it was going to be another one of those nights. City just came with so much force they utterly blew that away. It instead became one of the club’s great nights. It wasn’t all about that force either, irresistible as it was. The game was ultimately cut open, and effectively decided, by the most remarkable finesse from Kevin De Bruyne. After an opening period where City had looked to pummel Madrid with crosses towards Haaland, the Belgian then played the most divine reverse pass to just put Bernardo Silva into space to drive the ball past Courtois. The goalkeeper this time had no chance. It was the least Bernardo deserved for his performances of late, and he soon had more. Madrid again buckled under the pressure. Bernardo headed home. That was it, after just 37 minutes, but it had felt done long before that. A 76th-minute Eder Militao own goal only added insult to punishment for Madrid, as City played around and through them. Julian Alvarez then wrapped it up to turn a comprehensively convincing victory into a humiliation. It was maybe the defeat that had long been coming for Madrid. It was always going to be City that subjected them to it. The fans were joyously doing the “Poznan” as their players just enjoyed possession in that way Guardiola demands, the very dance a reminder of earlier times when the club had started this journey under this project but still weren’t on stages as grand as another Champions League final. It was joyous. That should also provoke more complicated discussions, that very few people really like to have as they are enjoying shows like this. Any discussion of best-ever English performances in Europe really needs to bring in context like the fact this is an Abu Dhabi state project, that has also become the most lavish sporting project ever seen. It is why this incredible level of superiority was as inevitable as that City goal in the early stages. Even the randomness of cup football can’t withstand it indefinitely. Guardiola has been able to reach a point of perfection, from perfect conditions, and an infrastructure almost built to him. This is brilliantly intelligent planning. It is also obvious, and the sort of thing very few other clubs can afford because they just don’t have the backing over that time. That time also explains modern football. The story of the modern game is really that, around 15 years ago, a group of autocratic states motivated by an acutely regional rivalry looked at football and saw it as powerful new area of expansion. This, similarly driven along by the sport’s embrace of western capitalism, has led to the long-term distortion. Is this good for the sport? No one can deny it’s good to watch, although often at a level that goes beyond sport as a competition. This was certainly an illustration of that. It was never a contest. The European champions were humiliated. New European champions are about to be crowned. That’s all part of the show. It’s also part of wider political ambitions, that do bring in questions about sportswashing and human rights records. There's also the context of those charges brought by the Premier League, and how this return to the Champions League final would also have been the club's return to Europe had the Court of Arbitration for Sport not overturned Uefa's punishment in 2020. None of this should be taken as sympathy for Madrid. They have been one of the most responsible factors in the football landscape looking like it does. The game was for so long disproportionately influenced by their demands. The world they created just got out of their control, and they have now been considerably brutalised by it. City’s rise just continues that process, though. For the last 40 years, football has been increasingly financially staggered and stretched, with the top end getting narrower and narrower. Every few years, fewer clubs can win. State ownership has taken that to new extremes. Guardiola has taken this City to extremes. Another treble now awaits, but this is the most triumphant of all. City aren’t there yet. But, like so much else with the game right now, it feels inevitable. Read More Man City’s greatest Champions League night, Real Madrid need Jude Bellingham and five things we learned Man City vs Real Madrid player ratings as Kyle Walker dominates Vinicius Junior Bernardo Silva’s unique talents lead Man City’s evisceration of Real Madrid Five things we learned as Man City thrash Real Madrid to reach Champions League final Man City vs Real Madrid player ratings as Kyle Walker dominates Vinicius Junior

There was a player whose goals were designed to transform Manchester City into Champions League winners. It wasn’t Bernardo Silva. “Bernardo has never been a top scorer,” shrugged Pep Guardiola in March, after one of his favourite footballers had scored at the Etihad Stadium for the first time since August. He sounded utterly unworried. Silva, as he said then, “is unique”. He was aggressive presser, rhythmic passer, the man who could speed the game up or slow it down, the player he has used as everything from the most unconventional of left-backs to a false nine but who could be relied upon to make everyone else play better. But then, after five goals in 51 games this season, came two in a quarter of an hour. Against Real Madrid. In a Champions League semi-final. Only Lionel Messi and Robert Lewandowski had scored twice against Real on this stage before, but they are more frequent scorers. Silva had delivered a winner of sorts against Carlo Ancelotti’s side in a similar occasion last year; but that was a first leg, and a 4-3 scoreline was overturned. Not this time. On City’s greatest European night, amid Real’s evisceration at the Etihad, he is the man who powered them to a final where they will be favourites. It can go wrong from here – the abiding lesson of Guardiola’s City in the Champions League is that it always can – but they will never have a better chance. They may never have a better team, either. The half-time statistics – 13 shots to one, 72 per cent possession to 28 – were stark, the final scoreline – 4-0 – still more so. This was Real, after all, perennial kings of Europe. And if there was something studied and strategic about their slow start, the team playing the long game allowing City to attack, if the intention was they may grow into the game after the first 20 minutes, Silva instead scored in the 23rd, and then the 37th. There was something symbolic in his opener, in the identities of the pair Kevin De Bruyne bisected with a wonderful pass. They were the men whose precision was at the heart of Real’s dominance of this competition over the past decade. There was perhaps a yard between Luka Modric and Toni Kroos but De Bruyne threaded the ball between pass masters. Suddenly, Silva was free in the penalty area. He steered his shot past Thibaut Courtois. The Belgian had done his best impression of Superman, with twin saves from Erling Haaland headers, but he was powerless to stop this. Yet if the Norwegian has given City another dimension with his aerial ability, the unexpected element was that the man to score with a bullet header was Silva, all 5ft 8in of him. After Ilkay Gundogan’s shot was blocked by Eder Militao, the ball flew up obligingly for Silva. Good fortune or positional instinct? Whichever, the finish was unerring. Rewind to March and Guardiola had suggested Silva’s contribution could not be judged by statistics. And yet a double meant that, of Silva’s last eight club goals, three had come against Real in Champions League semi-finals. He is the small man for the big stage. Guardiola, as he inferred, rarely judges players on their goal tallies. Perhaps he may deem that Silva’s real masterpiece in this season’s Champions League was his performance against Bayern Munich at the Etihad; it was an example of how to press three players at once which, in turn, shows the selflessness Guardiola loves. There was further evidence of it. Subdued as Real were, Vinicius Junior offered the possibility he could provide the explosive to alter the game. Gundogan was booked for fouling the Brazilian as he threatened to burst clear. But sliding in on him from the other side, in a pincer movement, was Silva. A man for many a job was tasked with helping Kyle Walker patrol Vinicius. If Silva is a central midfielder press ganged into a variety of other roles, he may be the best defensive right winger around. Guardiola has tried many a formation in his time, from the inspired to the overly experimental, but City defended in a conventional 4-4-2 shape, freeing up De Bruyne to raid in support of Haaland. The stamina of Silva and Jack Grealish, the flair players with the lungs of long-distance runners, permitted it. Go back to 2019, to what proved the title decider against Liverpool and Silva ran 13.7km in a tour de force. That willingness to keep on moving may yet bring his departure. There is an almost annual question if he will leave City; Barcelona seems to exert a siren call, though they invariably lack the funds to purchase a player of his class. But Silva has enough of an attachment to City to name his dog after John Stones. The defender’s name echoed around the Etihad after Eder Militao’s own goal put City 3-0 up. Unless, of course, they were paying tribute to Silva’s dog. He could be one exhausted animal because, long after a semi-final was settled, the man still running was Silva. Real Madrid could not keep up with him; perhaps his four-legged friend cannot either. Read More Man City vs Real Madrid LIVE: Result and reaction as brilliant City cruise into Champions League final Man City’s greatest Champions League night, Real Madrid need Jude Bellingham and five things we learned Man City vs Real Madrid player ratings as Kyle Walker dominates Vinicius Junior

Manchester City has an opportunity to win its first ever Champions League trophy after delivering a masterful performance against European giant Real Madrid on Wednesday.

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Brentford striker Ivan Toney has been suspended from football for eight months. The England international’s punishment, which will see him banned until January, comes after he admitted 232 breaches of the Football Association’s betting rules. Here, the PA news agency looks at other Premier League players who have been handed lengthy bans. Joey Barton – 13 months In April 2017, when he was playing for Burnley, Barton was suspended by the FA for 18 months for placing bets on 1,260 matches between March 2006 and May 2013. Soon after, with the midfielder having been released by the Clarets, that was reduced on appeal to 13 months. Abel Xavier – 12 months The Portugal defender received an 18 month-ban from UEFA in November 2005 after testing positive for an anabolic steroid following a match for Middlesbrough against Xanthi in the UEFA Cup. The suspension was cut to a year by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in the summer of 2006 and Xavier resumed playing for Boro the following season. Mark Bosnich – nine months The FA gave Bosnich a nine-month suspension in April 2003 after he failed a drugs test for cocaine. The former Australia goalkeeper was fired by Chelsea and lost his appeal against the ban. Eric Cantona – eight months In one of the most memorable incidents in English football, Eric Cantona kung-fu kicked a Crystal Palace supporter having just been sent off while playing for Manchester United in 1995. The Frenchman admitted a criminal charge of assault, for which he was sentenced to community service, while also receiving a £30,000 fine and an eight-month ban by the FA. Rio Ferdinand – eight months In December 2003, following a two-day FA disciplinary hearing, Ferdinand was banned for eight months for missing a drugs test in September of that year. With an appeal failing, the suspension saw the centre-back sit out the remainder of Manchester United’s season and England’s Euro 2004 campaign. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Andy Murray swept aside by Stan Wawrinka in Bordeaux Challenger event Fit-again Jonny Bairstow ‘buzzing’ to return to England squad after ‘dark times’ McGregor’s documentary and Coric’s ice cream love – Wednesday’s sporting social

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Brentford striker Ivan Toney has been hit with an eight-month ban after admitting breaches of betting rules. Toney was charged by the Football Association last November for 262 alleged breaches over a four-year period. The 27-year-old – who made his long-awaited England debut in March – admitted to 232 of the counts, with 30 having been subsequently withdrawn. Following a personal hearing an independent regulatory commission imposed Toney’s sanctions, which included a £50,000 fine. He will not be able to play until January 17, 2024, but can train with Brentford from September 17. “Ivan Toney has been suspended from all football and football-related activity with immediate effect for eight months, which runs up to and including 16 January 2024, fined £50,000 and warned as to his future conduct for breaches of the FA’s betting rules,” an FA statement read. “The Brentford FC forward was charged with 262 breaches of FA Rule E8 in total between 25 February 2017 and 23 January 2021. The FA subsequently withdrew 30 of these breaches and he admitted to the remaining 232. “His sanctions were subsequently imposed by an independent regulatory commission following a personal hearing. He is permitted to return to training only with his club for the final four months of his suspension starting from 17 September 2023.” The written reasons behind the decision of the independent regulatory commission are to be published “in due course” and will be reviewed by both the FA and Brentford. The Bees chose to make no further comment and will be “considering our next steps”, which could include an appeal against the suspension. Toney scored 20 Premier League goals for the Bees this season, but will now sit out the remaining two matches – at Tottenham and then home to leaders Manchester City – as Thomas Frank’s side look to consolidate a top-10 finish. The loss of Toney, though, is likely to be more keenly felt at the start of the next campaign. Speaking last December following the announcement of the FA’s charges, Frank had been questioned on what the club might do should Toney end up facing a lengthy suspension. “We don’t have anything specific lined up if something should happen,” Frank said. “We are always in the market, we always try to improve the squad so, of course, we are aware of players out there and we have a plan we are following, but no specific one for potentially replacing Ivan.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Fit-again Jonny Bairstow ‘buzzing’ to return to England squad after ‘dark times’ James Milner and Roberto Firmino among four leaving Liverpool this summer McGregor’s documentary and Coric’s ice cream love – Wednesday’s sporting social

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