Miracle, madness, or simply Karim the Dream! No words to describe the shocking night at the Etihad

Week after week, leg after leg, round after round, Real Madrid's squad, led by out-of-this-world French striker Karim Benzema keeps throwing a spectacle at us. And it never fails in delivery, not even for a bit. Moreover, it takes us back to that sweet moment of childhood fairytales where everything is possible, or more precise - where nothing is impossible.

Extraterrestrial football and supersonic goals! City edge past Real Madrid in a seven-goal thriller in Manchester

Not even to bounce back against the super-mighty Manchester City on their ground after conceding not one, not two, not three, but four bloody goals! And still, the Royals are anything but taken aback. It became common for them to strike back immaculately in the Champions League after seemingly losing both grounds underneath their feet and hopes of survival.

We've seen that movie against PSG, then again in some moments against Chelsea, and now, once more, with Madrid confronted with the splendid City of Pep Guardiola.

WED: 22.00: (1.40) LIVERPOOL (4.90) VILLAREAL (9.00)

What strikes us the most is the fact Carlo Ancelotti seems to be cluelessly wandering through some of those games yet managing to keep his side afloat despite that. At the Etihad, he forgot Camavinga on the bench for two-thirds of the encounter, lost the battle in the midfield, and suffered enormously with his modest defenders.

And yet - there's always that 'yet' with Carletto - he survived. A single-goal deficit is not the advantage City should feel relief about ahead of the return leg at the Spanish capital, especially considering their rivals' second to none morale.

It was perfectly summed up in a couple of tweets last night of Royal's players, including The Man himself. Karim Benzema, who struck that cold-blooded Panenka, sent a powerful message to all:

"The game has only just begun... We are Real Madrid!"

David Alaba added:

"Y'all know: We can't wait for the 2nd leg."

Does it sound like a loser mentality to you? We don't think so, either.

And no matter how much we like to ignore those numbers and stats surrounding the game, there are a couple of them that fully demonstrate Real Madrid's utter, almost magical power of resurgence. Los Merengues have lost three out of five last UCL games; at the same time, their rivals have had - brace yourself - as many as 99 shots on and off the target altogether; moreover, unlike City, whose defensive and offensive setups include all 11 players respectively, Carletto's outfit relies almost exclusively on Karim the Dream in the attack (16 goals in the last 12 matches!), and YET - they're still in.

Sure, it's unacceptable to neglect Modric's ingeniosity as a playmaker or Vinicius Jr's smooth operating on the flank. But what keeps these wheels turning is the beast mode the 34-year-old Frenchman has gotten into in the last couple of seasons. This is - no dilemma there - his career peak, and if the Spanish outfit overpowers the Citizens, we'll be having a true football revolution - the perfect team would lose to a single ideal player.

He hasn't got a dream, he's the Dream himself.