It is no less amazing because it has been lived. It is no less incredible because it is known. Even though it was expected, it still surprises. The same ending as always. With the usual result. When Madrid was on the canvas for the umpteenth time and with the referee keeping the count up to almost ten, the white team was resurrected to be one step away from another European Cup. The girls are always madridistas. When it seems that this time they have gone on vacation, they return to the place of the spell, a Bernabéu stadium where Ancelotti’s team becomes indestructible.
And Bayern was close to hitting it with its own medicine. And he collected himself with intelligence and deployed himself with clairvoyance. And that was well into the second half. He didn’t care. Because in Madrid in the Champions League any footballer can become a protagonist. Any frog can transform into a prince. When it’s not Lunin it’s Rüdiger. And if not Lucas Vázquez. Or Nacho. Or, in this case, Joselu. The white label striker was brought in cheaply from Espanyol to try to replace the escaped Benzema.
Waiting for Mbappé to arrive, with the starting goalkeeper injured all season, without the star center back and with a number nine that would not be on the world’s first line. But there is Madrid, stroking its 15th European Cup. With only two defeats all season. With a resistance exercise in Manchester, and with an esoteric practice against Bayern. It is not known how or why. But it is known that Madrid ends up winning.
Ancelotti’s men will be at Wembley on June 1, a cathedral of world football where they have not yet won a Champions League. There where Barça fulfilled its dreams, and doubly so, the Madridistas will look for another day of glory. They never get tired of winning this competition. They are never satisfied. Neither the players nor his coach, the incombustible Ancelotti, that Italian-style Del Bosque who applies his left hand but who, above all, convinces the staff with his overwhelming logic. Don’t look for just football reasons to find the immortal Madrid here again.
This time the referee’s help came at the last minute with a goal disallowed for De Ligt due to an offside that was not the case and that was hastily signaled. So that none of the usual ingredients were missing.
