Real Madrid after sensational comeback against City to Champions League final against Liverpool | Foreign football

By Edwin Winkels

Three clubs started the Champions League this season as big favorites, a role they all confirmed during the tournament. Until they met Real Madrid. After Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich, Manchester City also had to bow mercilessly and painfully to the wondrous strength of the Royal, the team that never gives up, even if he is behind and he is the lesser for a long time.

In front of their own audience, the Madrilenians eliminated the 4-3 defeat in the first leg (which could just as well have been an 8-3). And as so often this season, it happened shortly before the closing time of the candy store that Real Madrid, with 13 trophies, have enjoyed by far the most of all. Liverpool have been warned.

Everything seemed decided when Riyad Mahrez gave Manchester City the lead in a difficult match fifteen minutes before the end: 0-1. The Algerian shot the ball hard at the first post. The visitors seemed to be able to hold back their nerves, this blow seemed the final one for Real, the end of that exceptional road through Europe. But those English nerves returned shortly before time in multiples, along with the pride and hope of the Madrilenians.

Even coach Carlo Ancelotti seemed to have thrown in the towel in the 90th minute and sat down in the dugout; four days after the national championship, there would be no second party. Until substitute Rodrygo took over the role of Karim Benzema and Vinicius Junior. Ancelotti had left him on the bench, wanted to build in more security with a fourth midfielder, the Brazilian breaker Casemiro, while his team still had to clear the backlog of the first leg.

But necessity naturally broke its conservative law. Just before City’s 0-1, Rodrygo had already entered the field for Toni Kroos. Twenty minutes later, in which the visitors still had chances to make it 0-2, the Brazilian set the Bernabéu on fire. In the 90th and 91st minutes he scored twice from close range. Ancelotti was as stunned as Guardiola was a few yards away from him.

Soon in extra time, the home team made use of the mental turmoil that still made the visitors dizzy. Portuguese captain Ruben Dias tapped Benzema in the penalty area and the Frenchman shot the penalty himself, his 15th goal this season in the Champions League, only to be replaced shortly after exhausted and slightly injured. Benzema thus scored 43 goals in 43 matches this season. His job was done, because that third goal proved insurmountable for the big favourite, the team that had failed to take enough distance at home.

Guardiola had an excellent track record as a trainer with his visits to the Bernabeu. He lost only one of his nine matches against Bayern Munich. He will remember this second loss for a long time. Because at the same time, there seems to be a curse on the Champions League for him for ten years. In 2011, he captured the latter of the two with FC Barcelona. In the three years with Bayern Munich, he stranded in the semi-finals.

Now in his sixth season with Manchester City, after last year’s defeat to Chelsea in the final, it finally had to happen. Against Liverpool, also the great rival in the Premier League. But none of that. Instead of City for its first, Real are going for its fourteenth major European Cup.