The sequence of events against the real Madrid is always unlikely. Fate invites not to dominate, because the white team, eternal King of EuropeHe is a fighter who is enervated by each blow. He plays with the pressure of the rival. He knows that with everything in his favor it is predictable, but after everything that happened in the last edition he has thousands of wild cards. It is a refined psychological work, where the poison is inserted into the opponent’s body when he thinks he has it under control. But this time, the white machinery was wrecked. A process of destruction that affected all the bastions.
Bernardo Silva, the ‘Messinzinho’ who overthrew Real Madrid
The life of the champion has these stages. Nights in which to burn to the entrails to come back and understand that no one escapes weakness. Ancelotti’s final changes showed his surrender: Tchouameni, ceballos and Lucas Vazquez. On the bench, ecstatic, watching the collapse of the hierarchs Toni Kroos and Luka Modric. They tried it with the quality that they are used to. However, the constellation of heroes who built an incomparable story last season did not appear in the face of the development of City’s football idea. With his renewal in the air, this may be his last great dance with Real Madrid.
Guardiola has learned to stay up all night. After thinking about the matches so much and having nightmares about the irrationality that the white team poses, he opted for the purest conservatism. The changes, minimal, as if the City were a rigid castle. The Spanish team did not go into melee and turned out to be much more mature. He dominated all records, guided by players like Bernardo Silva. That type of footballers who escape logic. It was not for nothing that he was nicknamed the ‘Messizinho’ in his time as a rising star at Benfica. He gutted the fabric of a team that lost time, possession and even the strength to react.
Guardiola’s prudence and a naked Vinicius
In Europe, against Real Madrid you have to constantly be between the jinx and the counter-jinx. Two realities that surround the life of a club that has forgotten about losing finals and that has turned the semifinals into a magical routine. An abnormality for LaLiga, a modest organization that only strains teams in the final phases when it comes to spirit and history, as is the case with the whites or with Sevilla. It is what remains of the championship of salary limits, as restrained as it is wrong in the pool of sharks that is current football.
“I’ve had a fucking good time,” Guardiola assured in the previous one, putting the bandage on a wound that this time did not appear. The details accompanied him in the first leg and in the second leg, the white magic remained in attempts. That Kroos crossbar spat out with violence and above all the impotence of a Benzema whose weakness invoked defeat. The French striker, on whom the entire game revolved last year, has never been himself. It must have been Vinicius who relieved her of him. However, he was stopped short. Neither inside nor outside. An explosive end that had its cables cut.
Champions always come back, but they need heart
On Modric’s face you could see the wrinkles from the passage of a glorious time. The memory of him will remain beyond this tragic night where a club thought solely and exclusively to win – like Real Madrid, but with another method – has surpassed the champion with merit. Because this condition is not lost in a single tie. The bulky result is the fruit of a path towards excellence beyond the enormous investment: in millions and talent. Not in figures like PSG, a formula that, luckily for the health of this sport, has failed time and time again.
The fact of overthrowing the hierarchs reinforces the passage of time and the glory of, up to now, the only modern and investment project. For anyone who has grown up with this generation, watching Kroos’s choked pace is a tough assumption. However, he left five minutes in full freedom where he did damage for the blow that could change the movie. Same discouraging gesture that of Modric, completely deactivated. It is time for change at Real Madrid. Transitions only occur with abrupt drops. That of the Etihad is a decree against tradition, but history shows that champions with heart always come back.