The eternal Real Madrid brought down the defending champion Manchester City on penalties in the quarter-final return (1-1, 4-3 tab), Wednesday at the Etihad, where the English had not lost since 2018 in the Champions League.
The “White House” and its fourteen titles have entered the final four of their favorite competition, where they will face another giant of the continent, Bayern Munich.
He had to resist the countless sky blue waves in a meeting spent defending, mainly, after the quick opening score signed by Rodrygo (12th).
His defense cracked in front of Kevin De Bruyne (76th), but his nerves remained strong until the end, that is to say until the fateful penalty shootout.
His shooters all did the job except the first, Luka Modric, and his goalkeeper Andriy Lunin put on his superhero cape by stopping the attempts of Bernardo Silva and Mateo Kovacic.
Manchester City supporters tried to comfort their champions, who came out despite almost one-sided domination on Wednesday, with applause and a few songs, but the adventure ends here.
Real Madrid suffered, didn’t show much, but got a victory that no team had managed to achieve on the European scene at the Etihad since Olympique Lyonnais in September 2018.
He owes it largely to his Ukrainian goalkeeper, replacing the usual starter Thibaut Courtois (injured), in demand from start to finish and impeccable when his team needed him most.
The “beautiful” between the “old” Real, fourteen titles in C1, and the “modern” City, crowned for the first time last year, therefore turned to the advantage of Carlo Ancelotti’s men.
Haaland still blocked –
The spectacle did not reach the peak of the two previous seasons, where each team took turns winning the semi-finals, nor that of the quarter-final first leg (3-3), last week in Madrid.
But the Spaniards will not care, they who experienced a real ordeal in the north of England a year ago, with a scathing 4-0 as the European terminus.
The early opening of the score largely conditioned the rest of the match with, to summarize, the Mancunians on the attack against the Madrilenians on the lookout for the slightest counter.
Erling Haaland once again came up against the wall of the “White House”, with a crossbar (19th) in particular to repel his hopes.
De Bruyne tried his hand at a direct corner, twice (15th, 45th), without success, or on a long shot which forced Lunin to push the leather back for a corner (27th).
The goalkeeper kept a watchful eye and, when he was overtaken, his defense came to lend him a helping hand. Captain Nacho, put under pressure by Haaland, broke away to repel a dangerous ball.
Real Madrid, cornered in their camp, managed to contain all the sparks, with discipline and without panicking, until the entry of Jérémy Doku in place of Jack Grealish.
The Belgian left winger’s dribbles and accelerations set the scene on fire, and on one of them, the former Rennais crossed hard into the area, a defender pushed back as best he could but De Bruyne emerged (76th , 1-1).
Real contained the last sparks and won the last session, as champions.
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