Real Madrid advanced to the semifinals by defeating City on penalties in an exercise of defensive resistance never seen before in the history of a club that understands football as a dizzying attack. Madrid’s classification speaks clearly of the white club’s resilience in its favorite competition, where it survives in any way, adapting to everything and with the only goal of victory.
The game script can be studied in soccer schools as a 120-minute goal tachy, a sustained exercise of forwards against defenses.
Madrid came to Manchester with the lesson learned. Ancelotti had demanded courage and personality from his players and Madrid did not rule the game, but they did rule the tie for 75 minutes. The whites took the lead in the 13th minute with a goal from Rodrygo and City could only equalize after an hour and a quarter through De Bruyne.
The match was as planned from the lineups. Ancelotti was not going to do magic there. Nacho played instead of Tchouaméni and, like at the Bernabéu, Rodrygo went to the left and Vinícius came in more in the center. In reality, he didn’t care a bit because the ball didn’t last long for Madrid and it barely passed midfield.
Guardiola did not experiment either but recovered three players who were missing in the first leg: Ederson, Walker and the Belgian Kevin de Bruyne, who would be the best of the match.
The entire match was an exercise in Madrid’s resilience taken to an extreme degree. City took control of the ball and Madrid entrenched themselves around their goalkeeper. However, the whites took the lead on the scoreboard in their first and almost only goal of the first half thanks to superb control by Bellingham on a ball hung into the sky by Carvajal. The Englishman opened for Vinícius and he crossed for Rodrygo, who shot Ederson, who stopped his first shot but not the second. Rodrygo is always in the mood against Guardiola’s men.
The goal against made City even more angry, as they began to play and play, trying to find a gap in Madrid’s dense defense, which often defended with everyone in the area.
The tying goal was in the cards but between Lunin and Rüdiger they managed to avoid the tie. And when not, in the clearest chance for the skyblues, a header from Haaland went to the crossbar and then Bernado Silva missed into an empty goal.
Madrid survived the break because more or less clear shots from De Bruyne, Foden and Haaland himself were well defended by Lunin, who multiplied to clear corner after corner, most of the time with his fists.
Madrid only had one other arrival, a shot by Carvajal well covered by Gvardiol.
The second half began without changes and with City hanging on to Madrid’s neck. Madrid only had the objective of letting the minutes pass, which seemed like an impossible mission against a team that attacked in waves and did not let them get past the midfield.
Madrid held on and held on. City took corner after corner and the whites continued to give no other news than surviving in a bad way, an old school catenaccio.
The tie came after 75 minutes and the entry of Doku for Grealish, who had not had his day, was vital, with Carvajal winning all the duels.
However, at the first opportunity, Doku, the best defender of Guardiola’s men, managed to cross, Rüdiger missed, who cleared very short and De Bruyne had no more to shoot than a cannon shot.
Ancelotti refreshed the team with Modric for Kroos and Brahim for Modric. He didn’t care. Madrid was still dedicated to resisting without the ball, but managed to reach extra time, which began without Haaland, replaced by Julilán Álvarez. The Norwegian still hasn’t scored against the whites.
In extra time, Vinícus was injured, replaced by Lucas Váquez, and Rüdiger missed a goal against Ederson. City pushed but they were no longer the same because they couldn’t find the strength either.
Madrid went to penalties, where this season has not gone well at all. It couldn’t have started worse because Modric missed, but City was also very nervous and Bernardo Silva missed two shots, which he threw into the hands of Lunin, and Kovacic. Bellingham, Lucas Vázquez and Nacho scored for Madrid. The last one, to win the tie, was thrown by Rüdiger, who did not miss and unleashed the joy of Madrid. This is the Champions League and this is Real Madrid. Eleven times he had faced the current champion and eliminated him nine times. There’s one more.
