Real Madrid is like that. What was seen this afternoon would be difficult to explain if it had not been seen many times. The whites debuted in the Champions League with a victory in extremis when Unión Berlin already seemed to have the tie in their pocket, a point they had not deserved after a second half entrenched in their area, saved by the goalkeeper and the posts. On the last play, in 94, the “Bellingham moment” arrived. The Englishman caught a rebound in the area and sent it into the net. It sounds easy, but it is not.
Unión Berlin is now in the middle zone of the Bundesliga and limited itself to defending itself, accumulating many men at the back. He lacked the courage to attempt greater adventures. The draw tasted like glory and it will take time to accept this defeat. He forgot that right now the whites are experts at handling tight scores and that games last until the referee whistles. With this victory, Madrid will arrive at the Metropolitan derby on Sunday with an immaculate roadmap, six out of six, but with a much better track record in results than in the game itself.
This time Madrid did not suffer defensive difficulties. On afternoons like today the absence of Vinícius weighs heavily and the team abuses the centers to the pot to look for the header of Joselu, who at 33 years old was making his debut in the competition. Rodrygo was not seen until the second half.
Ancelotti made several changes to the eleven and the main novelty was leaving Fran García and Valverde on the bench, among the best against Real Sociedad. He could have influenced his decision because he believed that the match was not going to present so many difficulties and the proximity of the derby. Another surprise was giving the left back to Alaba, which led to Nacho being the central defender who accompanied Rüdiger.
The game started with rhythm, but it fell off very quickly. Modric was in the center of the field to direct the operations and the Croatian found few loopholes, very marked. Madrid immediately had two chances, two headers from Joselu that did not find the net and did not cause concern throughout the first half except for a third header from the Galician. He shot fourteen times, but only once well directed between the three sticks.
Unión Berlin, on the other hand, did not shoot Kepa in the entire first half, which was quite boring after the first ten minutes.
The second act began with the same 22 protagonists. White’s chances now came very early, in the sixth minute, with two shots by Rodrygo: one well covered by goalkeeper Rönnow and another with a half bicycle kick that hit the post. Immediately came another one with Joselu’s left foot, and once again the German goalkeeper intervened to prevent what was already predicted to be a goal. It was immediately seen that Madrid was much more engaged.
The game was clearly leaning towards the whites, who once again hit the post this time with a cross from the wing and a powerful header from Joselu that went past the goalkeeper and hit the woodwork.
Ancelotti saw the game to give it a twist and at 66 he retired his French midfielders, Camavinga and Tchouaméni, to add more quality with Kroos and better finishing and hitting the ball with the Uruguayan Valverde.
Rönnow grew bigger and once again avoided the white goal by deflecting a long shot from Modric into a corner. After a corner kick, Rüdiger was now able to score and the ball went high. Later it was Joselu again, who shot wide after a great pass from Bellingham.
For the last ten minutes, Unión Berlin removed the veteran center back Bonucci and Ancelotti removed Modric for Brahim Diaz, who has not yet taken off in the team. Five minutes of added time arrived. Bellingham had one left over.
