Anfield Madrid's bus, stoned
Guardiola manages to get Manchester City into the semifinals on the fifth attempt
Real Madrid built a wall in this Anfiled where only the cries of silence were heard, a heresy to which the pandemic condemns us.
A wall with which Zidane protected his troops from all their ills,
his team damaged by casualties
.
It was his battle at Thermopylae, this time won, on the way to an impossible conquest: the final in Istanbul.
Chelsea, in the semifinals, is the last hill before the Bosphorus.
Only one team believes in the impossible.
[0-0: Narration and statistics]
The limit of forces that Zidane spoke of was imprinted in the collective unconscious of the team, which feels capable of playing and managing, with all that is good and bad.
On the one hand, it is a show of
skill and poise
, something so necessary in this tournament.
On the other, it involves risks, and in the Champions League they are very expensive.
Madrid went through them to the end, more concerned to avoid mistakes than to make successes, and the strange thing is that they did not pay them, because Liverpool had
a dozen clear chances
.
If he did not, it was largely due to Courtois' hands, already hot when the ball had not yet passed through all the pieces.
The first stop is key for a goalkeeper.
Added to his safety was the anxiety of Klopp's men.
The German did the best a coach can do, and that is to command his players to be what they usually are, to do what they feel like, which is to attack and impose a frenetic pace on the game.
In a few minutes, he had achieved his goal, to be at the foot of the tree.
The fruit, however, did not fall.
Courtois prevented it
.
Mané poked at Madrid's open wound, his right wing, covered by a circumstantial side, Valverde, and won the position to offer the clean center to Salah.
The Belgian won the first heads up.
Minutes later, he fanned out like an albatross to clear a tremendous shot from Milner.
The goalkeeper started the second act in the same way, this time against Firmino.
Nacho, with authority
In silence, without noise, Courtois has managed to assert himself and end the suffocating debates that followed
Casillas' departure
.
He has what a great goalkeeper should have: few but decisive interventions.
The two threats to which the Belgian responded were not the only ones from the visitors, although the rest would already arrive in a more balanced situation in the game, but not in danger.
Madrid started with the priority of avoiding losses that gave an advantage to their rivals, concentrating on keeping the ball.
The problem is that it did not accompany her from the depth.
They were
long possessions
, band to band, like a windshield, but sterile.
He lacked threat, which usually starts with high blood pressure.
The weakness of the Liverpool centrals, Phillips and Kabak, was an invitation that he did not take advantage of in the same way he had done in Valdebebas.
Neither Van Dijk nor Gómez have reached this tie, an excessive burden for Klopp's men, because their authority allows them to advance the defensive line, bring the associations closer together and prevent Liverpool from becoming long and vulnerable.
This season it has been more so than ever.
If Madrid did not try to take advantage of it, it was not only for the rent of two goals.
It was because he knew his limitations, given the wear and tear and absences.
In fact, if something twinned him with his rival, it was the absence of his starting centrals,
Sergio Ramos and Varane
.
In his absence, Nacho has responded with the professionalism of always, but this time also with the authority that a defense chief employs.
Only those who feel it, leave their area to anticipate as the madridista has done, both against Liverpool and in the classic, in search of Messi.
In the sum of the two clashes with the English, the Madrid centrals won.
His counterparts dug the tie's grave in the first leg.
In particular, Alexander-Arnold, who, at Anfield, was one of his team's main offensive weapons.
Madrid accentuated the retreat with the passing of the minutes, taking cover in their area with their advantage and aware that Liverpool had more difficulties in the positional attack.
His thing is to run, so better not to leave spaces.
The helps from Vinicius or Asensio
were constant.
The trade-off is that they were too far away to fight back.
An error by Liverpool allowed Vinicius and Benzema to do so in the first half.
The Frenchman's center touched a rival and hit the post.
When the Brazilian was able to do it in the second half,
Alisson
won the duel.
No more.
ZZ used the bench to take breaks as best he could and Klopp explored new paths with Thiago, but they all led to Courtois.
Those of Madrid point to Istanbul.
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