Big clubs are immortal, and Real Madrid is the most spectacular example. The Spanish club signed a new fantastic comeback, Wednesday, May 4, in its den of Santiago-Bernabeu to overthrow, in the semi-final return of the Champions League, Manchester City (3-1) in overtime.
Left for dead after Riyad Mahrez opened the scoring (0-1, 73and) which gave the English a two-goal lead in aggregate – 4-3 winners in the first leg –, Real once again achieved the unthinkable thanks, this time, to their young Brazilian prodigy Rodrygo, who entered in the 68and minute and author of two goals in the space of a few seconds (90and90and+1) to push the game into overtime.
And at the 95andminute, the usual hero Karim Benzema, silent and imprecise until then – he nevertheless delivered a decisive pass on Rodrygo’s equalizer –, found his cape, and converted a penalty which he himself had caused, to propel Real into the final on May 28 at the Stade de France against another English club, Liverpool.
This is the first time that Real Madrid have managed to qualify after losing the first leg of a semi-final on the continental stage. Previously, Los Blancos had failed eight times.
Ancelotti for history
But this season, it’s the “unreal” Madrid: after the epic reversal of the situation against Paris-Saint-Germain in the round of 16 (0-1, 3-1), the incredible comeback against Chelsea in the quarter (3-1, 2-3 after extra time), and the first leg odyssey in Manchester a week ago (3-4), the team led by Carlo Ancelotti have added a new page to their epic notebook of the 2021-2022 continental season.
Four days after becoming the first coach to win the five major European football championships, Ancelotti, the man who led Real to the “Decima”, its tenth Champions League, in 2014, can also become the first technician of history to grab a fourth.
“The video that I showed before getting on the lawn was a video of all the lifts we have already done this season, which are eight in number, explained, after the meeting, the coach. And the video ended with the following message: “One is missing”. And we succeeded. The greatness of this club is that it never lets you down. »
Another failure for Guardiola
For Pep Guardiola, on the other hand, the disillusion is immense: the Catalan technician, hated in Madrid, is still chasing a new crown in the Champions League after the two titles gleaned with Barça in 2009 and 2011, and will not offer a second rank final at Skyblues, after that lost last year against Chelsea (0-1).
“We missed a little thing in the first half, we failed to give continuity. And in the second half, when we were better, we managed to score… And then there were those two minutes.”blew Guardiola after the match.
The Citizens will still have to wait to lift the first “Big Ears Cup” in their history. Long impervious to Spanish attacks, and even cheered up by Mahrez’s goal and the huge double chance of 87andwith a ball saved on his line by Madrid’s Ferland Mendy and a strike from Phil Foden which shaved the right upright of Thibaut Courtois, the English gave in at the worst time.
Rodrygo’s double revived Ancelotti’s players, carried by their captain Karim Benzema, author of a breathtaking season. In the final, the French centre-forward will face his main competitor for the Ballon d’Or, Sadio Mané. But the whole planet is almost already won over to the cause of Benzema version 2021-2022, the best of his career, who, at 34, has only one more step to climb to offer his fourteenth continental crown to the eternal Real Madrid.
