REAL Madrid suffered a shocking loss Wednesday, four days after Saturday’s cathartic and unexpected 2-1 Clasico upset of archrivals Barcelona in Catalonia. The 10-time European champions staggered to a 2-0 away defeat to Wolfsburg in the opening game of their Champions League quarterfinals tie.

    It was startling to see a side that had so cunningly lulled Barca into a false sense of security, before snagging a late win, lose comprehensively to their unfancied opponents.

    Wolfsburg, after all, is living through a disappointing Bundesliga season, sagging to eighth place in spite of the heralded signings of Julian Draxler and Max Kruse to reinforce a strong attack following the departures of Kevin de Bruyne and Ivan Perisic. Yet somehow, the Wolves have also put together their best European campaign ever.

    And after they breathed a deep sigh of relief when Cristiano Ronaldo’s second-minute goal was disallowed, for perhaps being inches offside on Karim Benzema’s smart through ball, Wolfsburg went on to a comfortable win.

    In the 17th minute, Andre Schurrle was brought down by Casemiro in Real’s box. Ricardo Rodriguez converted the penalty kick.

    Then, in the 25th minute, the busy Draxler hit a cross-field pass to Henrique. He needed three touches to settle the ball, but had so much space that he could still pick out Max Arnold on his low ball. Arnold only had to poke it past Keylor Navas, the Costa Rican goalkeeper conceding his first two goals in this competition ever.

    Then, to make things worse, Benzema was injured before the intermission.

    All night long, Real looked out of sorts, sitting deep and absorbing pressure as they had against Barca. Only now they did so against a team they ought to have been passing off the park.

    “Maybe we paid for the Clasico on Saturday,” manager Zinedine Zidane said after the game. “It hurts as we knew it would be difficult, but nobody, including me, expected this.”

    Meanwhile, Manchester City is in a strong position to reach the Champions League semifinals for the first time after Brazilian midfielder Fernandinho’s scrappy goal earned a valuable 2-2 draw away to Paris Saint-Germain in an error-strewn quarterfinal first leg Wednesday.

    It was a disappointing result for PSG, which has fallen at the quarterfinal stage in the past three seasons, and coach Laurent Blanc was left to rue his side’s sloppy defending and wasteful finishing.

    Poor concentration cost both sides, but Fernandinho gave City the edge for next week’s second leg when he bundled the ball home after a mix-up between right back Serge Aurier and center half Thiago Silva in the 72nd minute.

    “What really cost us is that we made mistakes we don’t normally make,’’ Blanc said. “We should have taken the lead, but instead they scored against the run of play.’’

    Blanc expects the return leg to be equally open.

    “I can’t see City sitting back and protecting the result,’’ said Blanc, who will be without center half David Luiz and midfielder Blaise Matuidi through suspension.

    City struck against the run of play in the 38th through Belgium winger Kevin De Bruyne, but a huge mistake from midfielder Fernando gifted PSG striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic an equalizer three minutes later.

    PSG took the lead when midfielder Adrien Rabiot tapped home in the 59th after goalkeeper Joe Hart saved Edison Cavani’s glancing header from Angel Di Maria’s corner.

    (SD-Agencies)