Direct Narration and statistics
Miracles do not exist in football. Zidane said it. Not even for the most indecipherable equipment out there. This Madrid is little Madrid for a final, overwhelmed by Chelsea in the first half of the first leg and in the second of the second leg. The miracle was not dying before the flood of other people's occasions and arriving with hope at the outcome sentenced by Mount, the best of the semifinal (2-0). To fall at this height is to fall on your feet, especially because of the difficulties you have gone through, but to dream again you have to change. It is up to Florentino Pérez to move, while his team drains the vein of the League.
Istanbul was a good place to extend an empire like Madrid's in the Champions League, but it won't be this time. A Chelsea rebuilt in months by
Thomas Tuchel
will arrive
, the same coach who led PSG to the final last year to the derision of Qatar's Titanic. Another English team awaits him,
Pep Guardiola's
City
, soccer's Euclides, the ball geometer, in Madrid's antichrist past.
The hierarchy, to the field. The form is something else. Zidane did not leave any proper name in the bank.
Sergio Ramos
and
Hazard
started as starters. Either because the big quotes call the big ones, or why they will say. It is true that these duels are decided by instants, but in both cases they were footballers who have had a strange or unprecedented 2021. It was illusory to wait for the best Ramos, who returned after the relapse after his operation, and, much less, the Hazard that Madrid still does not know. The grass at Stamford Bridge also didn't even bring him back to the nostalgia of his prime, either.
The French added an experiment to the ownership of both: the position of
Vinicius
.
Madrid was ordered from three centers, which allowed Sergio Ramos to save extreme efforts.
In the right lane, ahead, he placed the Brazilian.
This could give Madrid a lot of flight per band, given the speed, verticality and overflow of Vinicius, but, in the opposite direction, it implies defensive tasks that are unnatural for the footballer.
Tuchel distinguished them from the first minute and ordered Chelsea to charge from the left in the offensive actions, forcing
Militao
to split
.
Vinicius was ZZ's first change.
He was confused by his role.
Bad day.
Benzema's chances
The start of the return had nothing to do with the first leg in Valdebebas. Tuchel's team did not start on fire except for the pressure and toughness in the first actions, but not in the rhythm of the game. He left it for last. He let the ball go to Madrid, confident in his good defensive balance, and awaited the losses of Zidane's men to launch into the open field and look for the back of his sides, especially Vinicius.
Mount
was the linchpin in those transitions, with his diagonals devilish to the area. Courtois stopped one of his first crosses destined for
Werner
, just as imprecise and anxious as in the first leg, even if the gift of the first goal fell from the sky. It was precisely the product of another attack on space, led by
Kanté
. Overcome Casemiro, a constant,
Havertz
shot to the crossbar and the rebound was finished off by the German. He could have scored before, in a catalog against, but he took one more step towards the offside.
Madrid knew they had to protect themselves with the ball, so they looked for long possessions, but with difficulties to overcome the lines of a team uniquely designed by Tuchel. Zidane's first solution was the shots from outside the area, given the impossibility of penetrating it, neither from the center nor from the wings. As in the first leg, the only option was to invent spaces that did not exist, and that is up to
Benzema
. He turned sharply at the front of the area first; then he rose to finish off
Modric's
jam center
. On both occasions, he met the other
Mendy
, an exceptional goalkeeper. From then on, nothingness.
Chelsea picked up the pace after the break, in which they were able to throw Madrid to the canvas with half a dozen clear chances before
Mount's
goal
.
A shot from
Haverzt
to the crossbar, a
heads-up
that Courtois won against the same striker and another rejection by
Valverde
before the arrival of Kanté were the most outstanding but not the only ones.
The scoreboard was the only thing that sustained Madrid, but it was little Madrid to dream of, little Madrid for a final.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more
sports
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Champions League
Real Madrid
ChampionsThe leap to the limit of Casemiro and the frustration of Tuchel: "We were a little tired"
ChampionsBenzema, a beacon under Chelsea's football storm
Champions Klopp's lament: "That is what Salah usually marks with his eyes closed"
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