Was that the last 90 minutes of Xabi Alonso as coach of Real Madrid? The Royals lost 1:2 (1:2) against Manchester City in the Champions League on Wednesday evening and are continuing their crisis.
Rodrygo gave Real the lead in the 28th minute, Nico O’Reilly equalized (35th), before Erling Haaland turned the game around with a penalty before the break (43rd), thus further increasing the pressure on Alonso, who had recently been heavily counted on by the Spanish media. The Madrilenians only have two victories from the last eight competitive games, in the premier class the star ensemble slipped to eighth place, Manchester City is now in fourth place.
With Antonio Rüdiger and without the ailing Kylian Mbappé, Alonso began the duel with Manchester City that had been identified as his potential final. This time, Pep Guardiola called up his senior team, unlike in the 2-0 defeat against Bayer Leverkusen.
Real stronger at the start, Rodrygo takes the lead
Less than three minutes had been played when Real’s Vinicius Jr. was already lying on his back celebrating a penalty whistle from referee Clement Turpin – but after the video referee pointed out his celebration turned out to be premature: Matheus Nunes’ contact had occurred just in front of the penalty area line, there was only a free kick. Federico Valverde’s attempt was blocked out of bounds. Shortly afterwards the visitors’ penalty area was ablaze again, but Vinicius Jr. chipped the technically very demanding ball just past the goal with his outside instep (7′). Pep Guardiola shook his head incomprehensibly on the sidelines after just over ten minutes, Real were more present and energetic, the Citizens had the ball a lot, but were particularly noticeable because they often came into the duels too late.
Accordingly, there were a lot of free kicks for the hosts, in the 18th minute Aurelien Tchouameni headed just past Gianluigi Donnarumma’s goal after one. After one of the Madrilenians’ many energetic conquests of the ball, this time by Alvaro Carreras, the Royal team transported the ball in the 28th minute from the left back through the middle and Jude Bellingham to the right front, where Rodrygo energetically shot it flat into the far corner from a full run and a not so easy angle and scored the absolutely deserved lead. It was his first competitive goal of the current season – so the Brazilian was celebrated energetically by his colleagues.
First O’Reilly hits, then Rüdiger clings
Real goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois hadn’t even had to actively intervene until then – the Citizens weren’t taking any offense. But in the 35th minute the Skyblues were awarded a corner from the left and even though Courtois was able to parry Josko Gvardiol’s first header forward, O’Reilly was there in the second attempt and scored from close range to equalize (35th).
And it got even worse for the hosts: Rüdiger grabbed Haaland far too clearly from behind in the penalty area, away from the ball, Turpin looked at the scene again on the sidelines and then correctly decided on a penalty (43′). Of course, the Norwegian didn’t miss it, invited Courtois, the game was over – and that didn’t really seem to be explainable, the Alonso team had actually been the better team. The Madrilenians were beside themselves, complaining, raging – and in all their blind rage they almost conceded the third goal before the break. On a counterattack, Courtois first had to brilliantly parry Haaland and then again Rayan Cherki’s follow-up shot (45th + 1).
Time is running out for Real, Courtois is holding strong
Real started the second half again with an energetic counterattack after a great recovery of the ball from the strong Alvaro Carreras. As in the 1-0 win, the Madrilenians brought the ball to the right, but this time Bellingham decided to lob the ball, which was clearly too high (50th). Almost in the direct counterattack, Courtois prevented the score from 1:3, and again in the counterattack Rodrygo shot over the box.
As the game went on, Real had to open up the ranks more and more at the back, the Royals and their coach were running out of time and the star ensemble had less and less ideas to move forward. Every now and then the Citizens pushed into the resulting gaps: after just under an hour, Cherki elegantly chipped the ball from half-right into the intersection of the defense, but Haaland missed by a tiny margin in front of Courtois. A few minutes later, the Belgian goalkeeper just prevented the third goal from being conceded with a low shot from Doku with a very long arm – by now the guests, with the lead behind them, were actually the better team.
Lots of chances, but no more goals in the final phase
Real started the final phase with their first good chance in half an hour, but Vinicius Jr. headed quite freely past the goal to the right (78th). Shortly afterwards, Donnarumma sailed wildly through his penalty area from a corner, but again Vinicius Jr. at the far post was unable to take advantage of this good opportunity, fell behind and shot over (81′). Real pressed, tried everything, ran.
Substitute Endrick headed onto the crossbar (84th), an equalizer would have been entirely possible and probably deserved over the entire season. But he didn’t fall. And so the discussions about Alonso’s job will probably continue in the next few days. “The players tried everything, gave their best, we gave everything we had. We’re currently in difficult circumstances with the absences and the momentum isn’t good either, but the attitude was right.”Alonso told beIN Sports after the game.