The man on Friday evening in the Manchester stadium at times all eyes turned, had dressed up nicely. Sergio Ramos had tied his hair in a bun, his hipster beard was neatly trimmed, he wore a tight business shirt and tie under his suit vest, and all in all the costume looked a lot more edifying than the uniform in Hubba Bubba pink worn by Real Madrid’s playing colleagues.
Ramos gave everything: he cheered on his comrades with clenched fists and applauded them – his fingers spread like the flamenco singers from his Andalusian homeland. But in the end it all worked: nothing. Because it confirmed the old, almost physical-looking rule, according to which Real Madrid is unable to emerge successfully from a Champions League duel without Ramos on the field. Manchester City won the second leg of the round of 16, as in the first leg, 2-1. The English qualified for the final 8 tournament, which will take place in Lisbon next week, and will meet Olympique Lyon in the quarter-finals.
It was the fourth time after 2008 (against AS Roma), 2011 (FC Barcelona) and 2018 (Ajax Amsterdam) that Ramos had to attend a European knockout of his team in the stands due to a suspension. But not on every one of these occasions did the action on the pitch make Ramos’ absence as much of a focus as on Friday. The reason: Both Manchester’s goals were conjured up by capital mistakes by the man who had previously played a really fantastic season alongside Ramos and who was supposed to replace him as head of defense on Friday: Raphaël Varane.
Before the 0: 1, the French world champion from 2018 had the ball stolen from Gabriel Jesús, the Brazilian played for Raheem Sterling (9th minute). And after the interim equalization by substitute captain Karim Benzema (28th), who put a fine header into the goal, Varane failed to return the header to goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois. Gabriel Jesús (68.) ran the ball and poked it from an acute angle into the net. “Another shipwreck without Ramos,” headlined the newspaper The country on Saturday – alluding to Madrid’s sixth Champions League bankruptcy in seven games without the regular general. For Reals coach Zinédine Zidane, it was the first time ever in the thirteenth knockout game as a coach. Which in turn meant that City’s coach Pep Guardiola celebrated his eleventh win as a coach against Real Madrid. “You have to be honest. City deserved to progress over 180 minutes,” said Real’s German midfielder Toni Kroos on Sky. At the same time he defended Varane: “It can happen to anyone. Rafa had an outstanding season, there are no allegations.”
Varane himself asked after the game to be allowed to appear in front of the cameras to publicly castigate himself. “I want to show my face because this was my defeat,” he said, “I am very sorry for my colleagues.” He is facing “a very complicated night”. There were other reasons for the defeat, however.
Guardiola had left possession-oriented players such as Bernardo Silva or David Silva on the bench to exploit Real’s weakness at the opening of the game, which he suspected was behind the Ramos absence. Due to massive pressure in the pressing, which could already be seen in the first 100 seconds: The ball stayed in the ranks of the 13-time champion, but it hardly came out of its own penalty area, so brutal was the pressure the team had raised around the overall outstanding Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gündogan.
City subsequently had more and better scoring opportunities than Madrid. But “strangely enough, we didn’t use the very good chances we created, but hit them by pressing,” said Guardiola. His astonishment was limited. “Sometimes football gives you something like that.” Zidane, on the other hand, was harshly criticized for his idiosyncratic coaching in Spain.
On the one hand, it caused astonishment that he had bet on Eden Hazard. The Belgian 100 million purchase had to sit out for weeks due to an injury, the lack of match practice was noticeable. On the other hand, nobody wanted to understand that Zidane wasn’t ready to make substitutions until the 83rd minute; Young striker Vinícius, who is without fortune in front of goal, but can at least employ a defense, was not even allowed to warm up. “Everyone can say what they like,” said Zidane when asked if he regretted the late move, “but that doesn’t change anything.” But that was by no means the Frenchman’s darkest remark.
Guardiola chats with Zidane
On the contrary. He looked so grieved that he was asked if he still had the strength to remain a coach. “I’m the coach of Real Madrid, there is no question about that,” replied the Frenchman, who had thrown in a row after his third Champions League title in 2018 and only returned last year, and emphasized that he was with the expired Season, which held the 34th league title for Real Madrid, was satisfied: “95 percent of the time the year was excellent.”
Guardiola, in turn, was looking forward to the trip to Lisbon. “We’ll try to take the next step there; we know which team we beat,” said the Catalan, before he and Zidane drew the same looks that had previously been on Ramos. Because when the game was long over, he got together with Zidane for a chat. Guardiola later revealed that they had talked about the families, and that hopefully they could see each other over dinner soon. They hugged each other, and it can be assumed that Zidane wished his colleague luck. Because they value each other very much.
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