Cristiano Ronaldo tried to get over the pain of being deemed unfit to play by settling down in the dug-out to watch videos of himself.

If the brooding, self-consciously doleful look of his seemed a little staged, then don’t be fooled. When Rafael Benitez managed Ronaldo at the Bernabeu he found that it was the Champions League that did it for him. The sudden strains that would limit his interest in the hum-drum schedule of La Liga melted away. Benitez will tell you that this was the stage on which he would feel he was pitting himself against Lionel Messi for what trinkets comes at the end of the season.

It might have paid some of his teammates to watch those videos too, if only to remind them what the X-factor looks and feels like, because this side were certainly a shadow of their best without him. “We’ll use our weapons,” Zinadene Zidane had said on Monday night but they were blunt; the team incapable of that burst of pace and flash of enterprise – the beautiful unexpected – which puts the fear of God into Ronaldo’s opponents.

The mystery of Zidane’s strategy was that he did not hand Gareth Bale the central striking role Ronaldo had vacated - the one that the Welshman always implored Benitez to give him, because the Ronaldo clique would leave him isolated out on the flank. The centre forward’s job went to Zidane’s compatriot Karim Benzema instead and what we saw was something proletarian.

Manchester City 0 Real Madrid 0 player ratings Show all 22 1 /22 Manchester City 0 Real Madrid 0 player ratings Manchester City 0 Real Madrid 0 player ratings Man City: Joe Hart: 8 out of 10 Made two superb stops from Pepe and Casemiro and stood up to the magnitude of the occasion 2016 Getty Images Manchester City 0 Real Madrid 0 player ratings Bacary Sagna: 6 out of 10 Kept position and focus well to restrict space to Real’s wide men 2016 Getty Images Manchester City 0 Real Madrid 0 player ratings Vincent Kompany: 8 out of 10 Monstrous showing from the talismanic captain. Dominant in air and went close to scoring at set-piece 2016 Getty Images Manchester City 0 Real Madrid 0 player ratings Nicolas Otamendi: 7 out of 10 Buoyed by having Kompany alongside, did not shirk from challenges and aggressive on ball 2016 Getty Images Manchester City 0 Real Madrid 0 player ratings Gael Clichy: 7 out of 10 Got forward at every opportunity and also disciplined in his defensive work 2016 Getty Images Manchester City 0 Real Madrid 0 player ratings Fernando: 7 out of 10 Hardly let a thing past City’s midfield in opening half before fading after the break 2016 Getty Images Manchester City 0 Real Madrid 0 player ratings Fernandinho: 7 out of 10 The more forward and direct of City’s middle men, pushed on with purpose and direction 2016 Getty Images Manchester City 0 Real Madrid 0 player ratings Jesus Navas: 6 out of 10 Pace helped his work in defence which was just as well as he offered little with his final ball 2016 Getty Images Manchester City 0 Real Madrid 0 player ratings Kevin De Bruyne: 7 out of 10 Has returned in fine form and led City’s electric start to the match. Elegant on ball and in his passing 2016 Getty Images Manchester City 0 Real Madrid 0 player ratings David Silva: 7 out of 10 Content to sit on the ball and some cute passing before being forced off just before the interval 2016 Getty Images Manchester City 0 Real Madrid 0 player ratings Sergio Aguero: 6 out of 10 Struggled against might and ferocity of Pepe and Ramos and unable to replicate recent domestic form 2016 Getty Images Manchester City 0 Real Madrid 0 player ratings Real Madrid: Keylor Navas: 6 out of 10 Had little to do as his central defenders dominated the Real penalty box 2016 Getty Images Manchester City 0 Real Madrid 0 player ratings Dani Carvajal: 6 out of 10 Tidy in possession and comfortable to get forward in aid of attackers 2016 Getty Images Manchester City 0 Real Madrid 0 player ratings Pepe: 8 out of 10 Superb showing from the abrasive Portuguese centre-back. Dominant in the air and went close to scoring 2016 Getty Images Manchester City 0 Real Madrid 0 player ratings Sergio Ramos: 7 out of 10 Typically overzealous in some of his tackling and eager to take ball out of defence when given the chance 2016 Getty Images Manchester City 0 Real Madrid 0 player ratings Marcelo: 8 out of 10 Fine display from Brazilian, covered ground with intent defensively and threat bombing forward 2016 Getty Images Manchester City 0 Real Madrid 0 player ratings Luka Modric: 7 out of 10 Did not stop running and completed more passes than any other player. Delightfully delicate on the ball 2016 Getty Images Manchester City 0 Real Madrid 0 player ratings Casemiro: 7 out of 10 Forced Hart into strong save with header and his size helped Real establish stronghold as the hosts faded toward end 2016 Getty Images Manchester City 0 Real Madrid 0 player ratings Toni Kroos: 7 out of 10 German rarely ceded possession and provided platform for others to attack 2016 Getty Images Manchester City 0 Real Madrid 0 player ratings Gareth Bale: 6 out of 10 Took a while to get going before growing in stature in final half hour. Went close with curling effort 2016 Getty Images Manchester City 0 Real Madrid 0 player ratings Karim Benzema: 5 out of 10 Hardly noticeable in the absence of Ronaldo and was no surprise when he was taken off 2016 Getty Images Manchester City 0 Real Madrid 0 player ratings Lucas Vazquez: 6 out of 10 Covered phenomenal amount of ground but was never going to offer what Ronaldo does 2016 Getty Images

The Frenchman dropped to collect the ball rather than intuiting the razor passes Luka Modric and Toni Kroos are so patently capable of using to get a forward around the back. Or seizing possession and driving through alone. Benzema did not re-appear after the interval and the 23-year-old Spaniard Jese Rodriguez Ruiz offered nothing better in his place until he leapt to Lucas Vazquez’s cross with 20 minutes to run and sent it onto the bar.

That was a missed opportunity because Modric did not need long to reveal his understated presence as one of the brightest jewels, providing the midfield architecture with his turns and rapid passes through the eye of a needle. His 15-yard despatch with the right outstep for Marcelo, on the overlap, seven minutes into the second half was his signature.

The game changer wore blue, not white, and in the presence of Kevin de Bruyne we saw again the catastrophic folly of Jose Mourinho’s decision that he was dispensable at Chelsea. The anxiety he provoked was transparent on Pepe’s impetuous challenge which took him out flying and earned him a card.

There was just about enough equilibrium in the Spanish defensive to deter the Belgian, though – Casemiro timing a challenge well, for example, after De Bruyne left Pepe behind – but this did not look like rear-guard of champion class. Casemiro struggled for rhythm and though Sergio Ramos has had a season to forget, it took his stature and presence to anchor things. What a signing for Manchester United he would have been had money – 10m euros - not talked last summer.

(2016 Getty Images) (2016 Getty Images)

Where Zidane fitted into this matrix was difficult to know. He was a picture of motionless elegance on the edge of his technical area for almost the entire game, the hand gestures so understated as to make not the slight impact on his players. It was as if he was playing the game inside his own head. He did not have the faculty to change the flow of the game, either.

It was a manifestation of what some felt would be the problem when Zidane replaced Benitez last January. ‘ZZ’ provides the showbiz and the status but has been tested only with his club’s second string, and with a vastly greater budget that the opposition at that.

The problem which City may come to look back on as a calamity was their struggle to break through this anaemic opposition. The loss of David Silva to a hamstring injury with the game not 40 minutes old deprived them of their own architect, though it still seemed to be one of those nights when the side could not get players close enough to Sergio Aguero to find a pass for him. That can happen with regularity and it is a stunning failure considering what he delivers when the supply line is there. Four shots on target all night is not a statistic which does not win European Cups.

(2016 Getty Images (2016 Getty Images)

And so it came to pass that a Madrid side shipping the ball around sideways and deeply lacking in passes to break the tactical lines actually managed to finish the game so much in the ascendancy that City left the field with a sense of relief. Bale, taking the game into his own hands, flickered late on and Hart twice saved sharply – extending a leg to block Casemiro’s header, then placing himself in front of a point blank effort Pepe should have done better with.