Turns out that I didn't give Joe Hart nearly enough credit just now -- the Manchester City goalkeeper actually pulled off a better save than his first against Cristiano Ronaldo for that throwaway mention at the bottom of the last post. Ronaldo blasted past Maicon, who appears to be starting because Roberto Mancini is concerned about Ronaldo's sadness and is trying to cheer him up, and set in a vicious cross-shot that was met by Gonzalo Higuiain's head at virtually point-blank range. Hart somehow stoppped it.

A few minutes later, Alvaro Arbeloa destroyed Gael Clichy only to shoot right at Hart, and then City are let off when Sami Khedira misses from close range after a convoluted passage of Real Madrid play which saw Higuain very nearly put clean through. In other words, this game isn't going particularly well for the visitors, although it's still 0-0 in their first Champions League match of the young season.

For more on the Merengues, head over to Real Madrid blog Managing Madrid. For more on the Citizens, check out Manchester City blog Bitter and Blue. We have live coverage of the game in our Real Madrid vs. Manchester City StoryStream. For more on the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on Twitter.