There are special results in football, results that indicate that something special happened here. A result like 1:6, or 3:3. The best World Cup final of all time, the one between Argentina and France a year and a half ago, ended 3:3. The best ever Champions League final, between Liverpool and Milan in 2005, also ended 3:3. So is the concert seen by the 85,000 spectators in the renovated Bernabeu with the closed roof on Tuesday evening in the meeting between the two best teams in the world – Real Madrid and Manchester City.
The 2022 World Cup final and the Champions League final 19 years ago were of course decided in a penalty shootout. Because there was no choice. Yesterday it was “only” the first leg of the quarter-finals of the Champions League. And the decision will be next week in Manchester. And who knows, maybe even there the decision will be in a duel from the white spot…
It is evident that he was also impressed. Carlo Ancelotti, photo: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
As mentioned, this is only the first part of the quarter-finals, and there will be four more semi-final games and one final at Wembley on June 1, but it is hard to believe that this season we will get to see a better game than the one we got yesterday in the renovated Santiago Bernabeu, under the closed roof. It’s not just that six goals were scored in this crazy game – four of them came from outside the box. None of them were scored on a penalty and there was no VAR intervention during the 90 minutes.
And what about the gates themselves? Especially those scored towards the end. Phil Foden’s bomb to the connections from the left, Yoshko Gabbardiol’s cruise missile to the connections from the right and Federico Valverde’s perfect volley dessert that saved Real Madrid from their first home loss in over a year. Each of these three goals can easily compete for the “goal of the season” title. And to think that all three were scored in 13 minutes! Barcelona fans will forgive me, but in recent years the meetings between Real Madrid and Manchester City have become the “Classico” of European football. The point is that one of these two empires will end its journey as early as next week.
They provided candidates for the goal of the season. Manchester City players are crazy, photo: Reuters
By the way, as far as Manchester City is concerned, this was their ninth game in a row this season in the Champions League in which they scored three goals. Coincidence or not, this indicates the offensive strengths of the English champions, who score a considerable amount of goals at home and away.
The facts are known: City have won 28 of their last 30 Champions League home games and drawn the remaining two, making them heavy favorites for next Wednesday’s return at the Etihad. Last year, as I remember, she defeated the Blancos there 0:4 in an unprecedented display of purpose.
Real Madrid needs him in return. Jude Bellingham, photo: Reuters
But someone like Pep Guardiola knows that Real Madrid should never be eulogized. And it doesn’t matter what happened in the recent or distant past. Pep said yesterday at the end: “We scored three goals at the Bernabeu, it’s really good. Not everyone in England knows what it’s like to play here against Real. It’s a result we’re proud of. In my first years at City, we’d lose a game like this 4:1. I told my players, if you You come to play against Real in the Bernabeu, in their factory, and you think you can play 90 minutes as you imagine, then you are wrong.” What is certain is that if Real want to win at the Etihad, they need a better and more focused Jude Bellingham. Yesterday he was nervous, not sharp enough, and for the first time this season in the Champions League, he didn’t score or cook.
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Yesterday’s game at the Bernabeu was undoubtedly the best we have seen this season in the Champions League, a great battle between two teams that continue to be undefeated. For the Blancos it was 25 games in a row without a loss and City recorded 26 games without a defeat. Only that next week there must be a decision. In 90 minutes, 120 minutes and maybe in a penalty shootout. And although it sounds illogical and improbable, when it comes to City and Real, who knows, maybe the interplay will even surpass the wonderful symphony we saw last night at the Bernabeu.
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