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The most precise description of how desperate this Real Madrid is, with which it is never completely finished, was left on Tuesday by Thomas Müller, the second footballer with the most Champions League nights, 150, like Casillas, only one less than Xavi’s 151: “This is Real Madrid. You know. You’ve seen. We have seen it twice against City. We have seen it in recent years. You have to be careful every minute.” Then he stopped for a moment and looked to his left in the interview area. “Toni Kroos is laughing,” he explained to his CBS Sports interlocutors. “But he knows that he is always the same.”
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Neuer, Joshua Kimmich, Noussair Mazraoui, Kim Min-Jae, Eric Dier, Sane (Alphonso Davies, min. 86), Jamal Musiala, Müller (Gnabry, min. 80), Laimer, Leon Goretzka (Raphael Guerreiro, min. 45) y Kane
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Andriy Lunin, Ferland Mendy, Nacho (Camavinga, min. 64), Rüdiger, Lucas Vázquez, Aurelien Tchouameni, Federico Valverde, Kroos (Brahim Diaz, min. 75), Rodrygo (Joselu, min. 86), Jude Bellingham (Modric, min. 75) and Vinicius Junior
Goles 0-1 min. 23: Vinicius Junior. 1-1 min. 53: Sane. 2-1 min. 57: Kane. 2-2 min. 83: Vinicius Junior.
Referee Clément Turpin
Yellow cards Noussair Mazraoui (min. 43), Kroos (min. 64), Kim Min-Jae (min. 82) and Lucas Vázquez (min. 91)
Everybody knows. Also Tüchel, the Bayern coach, who already suffered in 2022 with Chelsea an awakening of Madrid from the other world: when it seemed that he had knocked them down at the Bernabéu, Real turned it around. The coach warned about this just a few days ago: “If you look at his goals, or his chances, and rewind 10 seconds, you didn’t see them coming. You don’t always see his goals coming. Everything seems under control, then you go five seconds and there it is suddenly.” On Tuesday Carlo Ancelotti’s team equalized them at the Allianz in the 83rd minute (2-2).
Madrid moves in this Champions League with ease in the narrow margin of the tables. They have drawn the last four games, their longest streak ever in Europe according to Opta. They have also done so in the cross-over phase, where they are just one victory away from the Wembley final despite having won only one match, 0-1 in Leipzig. It has extracted extraordinary performance from resistance. “The effort has been great,” Ancelotti said at the Allianz. “Especially at the end, to tie the game. We have done it with great effort. Bayern has shown the best version of him. Us, only in part.”
The key to them staying alive even on nights like this, or even on more extreme ones like the one at the Etihad two weeks ago, has been a resistance sustained by the conviction that they are capable of hitting back at any blow. “We always think like this: if we can’t win, we don’t want to lose,” Rodrygo said at Allianz. “They are the Champions League matches. We are used to it. It will always be like this. In these moments when they think you are dead, is where you may be in the most danger. And that’s what happened. In the part of the game when we were not very good, we tied. It always works that way.” Laimer was resigned: “This is typical of Madrid. We know them. They slow down the game and appear when they need it.”
That resistance, which at times seems desperate, however, has led Real to very few moments in which they were out of the competition. Of the 480 minutes they have played since the round of 16, they have only been behind on the scoreboard 44, 9%. He has always had that answer that Laimer was referring to on hand. In the first leg of the quarterfinals against City, in mid-April, they only needed ten minutes to respond to Bernardo Silva’s 0-1 lead and eight to tie when Gvardiol scored to make it 2-3. On Tuesday at the Allianz, 26 minutes passed between Kane’s penalty (2-1) and Vinicius’s (2-2). Those were the only three times in which Madrid found themselves behind in a tie. On the other hand, he played in advantage for 190 minutes, 40%, more than four times as many as he left behind.
To continue towards Wembley, Ancelotti’s team has combined resistance with a point of inspiration for the goal. It is summed up by the balance of the chances he has allowed and those he has generated, and the use of them. Since the round of 16, he has faced chances that the StatsBomb model values at seven expected goals, and has conceded seven goals; while he has produced five expected goals and scored eight.
Despite its effectiveness, resistance rather than a plan is a response to circumstances, as Ancelotti explained in Munich: “Today we didn’t want to play with a low block, but we went with a low block. Although too slow, with little intensity. I didn’t like it. When you have to defend you have to defend with more intensity, as we did for 120 minutes against Manchester City. Here we have made it too soft.”
However, it served to confirm itself as the team that has spread Bayern’s frustration the most. The Germans have failed to beat Madrid in any of their last eight games, the Bavarians’ worst streak against any team in Europe. “In this competition it is important not to lose,” Vinicius said. “And this is a team that hasn’t lost yet.”
The Brazilian was still talking on the pitch, after having been chosen best player of the match. They had just resisted a defeat that in many parts seemed inevitable, and added something that was reminiscent of what Benzema said two years ago in Manchester, also still on the grass, also shortly after having settled the result with a penalty (4-3 ): “At the Bernabéu we are going to do a magical thing, which is win,” the Frenchman announced. “Now it’s a magical night at home,” said the Brazilian about Wednesday’s return in La Castellana.
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2024-05-02 03:15:00
#Real #Madrids #resistance #draws #row #losing #time #Soccer #Sports
