Flip side is also true. This Liverpool beat City at home while keeping a clean sheet, and Madrid ruined them.
This Madrid is a top team. You need to play smart to beat them or you will lose. There's not a team around atm that can bully Madrid and trash them. Most that try get spanked. Let's be honest here, it's not like there's an elite team around that can attack Madrid at will. Most big teams in Europe if not all are good, but in an ordinary flawed way.
Makes our financial issues even harder to accept. If we had the funds to accelerate this rebuild by injecting 150-200m in this summer to fix our 3 big issues (DM, LW, RB), we'd be in the mix for a treble next season, as crazy as that sounds.
Every other component in the team is shaping up nicely. Manager seems skilled, Laporta is in a different league compared to clowns like Bartomeu, young players develop at a fast rate, attendance in record numbers again and so on.
The only problem is the squad is very short, and if injuries appear (which always will when you fight on all fronts), the replacements are Celta Vigo level with 2-3 exceptions.