• Narration and statistics This is how we tell you about the game

The Etihad was a grill, and not because of the aggressiveness of its fans.

No. It was due to the frantic attack with which Guardiola wanted to burn Madrid, subject again and again to the tests of his life, the last one in the style of Panenka, by Benzema.

Boldness or defiance, or both.

The defeat by the minimum does not demand anything tremendous from the epic, but it is not convenient to be greedy with destiny.

The floor now has the Bernabéu.

Guardiola's will be the same.

Do not hesitate.

He knows that Madrid is not stopped only by football.

He needs the fire.

Three times Ancelotti's team had a two-goal deficit and three times reduced it in a match at the pace of a thriller and in which there was no lack of spontaneous players, two children, but in which the errors in defense of both had to say a lot teams.

Those of Madrid, thick.

The symptoms were all favorable to City, but it was hardly necessary to wait to see its effects.

In two minutes you can see things.

It's the staging.

Pressing, in the opposite field, intense.

Mahrez took the first ball from a heel, deepened between doubt and lack of communication, Carvajal and Militao, and his center was a pearl.

De Bruyne

caught it with the brush.

This red-haired Belgian has something misunderstood, something of

Van Gogh

, but he paints football like few others.

Like Benzema.

The Frenchman's goal that brought Madrid back to reality and to the tie had similarities, in the center, in the problems of the defense and in the definition, but for that they would have to wait a third of the game.

When Ancelotti praised the defensive work he did at the Etihad, Atlético knew what he was talking about.

It was not irony.

His own weren't even capable of imitating him, badly standing, slow in anticipation.

Guardiola had opted for Gabriel Jesus as nine instead of Bernardo Silva, whom he moved to midfield to display his wisdom and his sweat.

The Portuguese is the footballer that all coaches want.

He calls, finishes and discovers the weaknesses of his team.

At the start it was Stones, forced his lineup because City suffers from a plague on the right side.

Guardiola ended up recognizing his mistake and put Fernandinho in his place, gallons against Vinicius, but also years.

In the first heads up, Vinicius killed him.

The same thing happened to Ancelotti with Alaba, signaled in the second local goal.

The initial claw of the City

City not only monopolized the ball, but also won individual duels.

Modric

and

Kroos

were missing, naked without the ball, and indecisions accumulated behind when City arrived with many people in the area.

A combination between Foden and De Bruyne, in a band that was for Carvajal like the tunnel of terror, ended with a ball from the Belgian into the area.

Gabriel Jesus

anticipated Alaba, turned around and lodged the ball in the net.

Easy, too easy.

The Austrian central defender had been in doubt due to his injury in Pamplona and reality confirmed, as in the case of

Stones

, that his lineup was a mistake.

Nacho replaced him after the break.

The problem was that his peer, Militao, wasn't the best version of him either.

Madrid, with two goals under, no longer served the wait.

Staying in the cave was suicidal.

Going out granted an opportunity, although not without risks, as the arrivals of Mahrez and Foden showed, which could have opened an already irreparable leak.

Benzema then raised the banner and waved at Vinicius.

The pressure caused losses, uncertainties in those of

Guardiola

.

That way the goal came, crowned by the Frenchman in the same way that De Bruyne had done.

The Frenchman's personality prevailed at times at the Etihad, something that could be felt in the sensations of the citizen

fans

when he took the ball.

They knew where the danger was.

Madrid's step forward ended the tranquility of

Rodri

, on whom the ball had pivoted with the gaze of a field marshal.

Not now.

Modric and Kroos appeared, and the guerrillas arrived.

The deception to Fernandinho

The City, however, was not daunted.

In one of his best versions of the season, he pushed right after the break with the same energy but without the command of the position as at the beginning.

An error by

Militao

in a coverage left the field open to Mahrez.

He progressed the Algerian, vertical, until crossing his shot.

He was repelled by the stick and the rejection was caught by Foden so that

Carvajal

could take it over the line.

The script returned to the beginning, confirmed with

Foden

's goal , City's third, after an error by Mendy, one more, at the start.

The advantage took Madrid to the abyss again, when Vinicius tricked

Fernandinho

, crossed the entire field and beat Ederson.

The goal of a great in a great game.

No one can doubt his stature anymore.

The result reduced the distance again until a poorly resolved ball in the Madrid area made

Bernardo Silva

's shot impossible .

They had to come back, and Ancelotti's team did so until Laporte's hand put Benzema in the 11 meters in front of the rival goalkeeper.

The recent failures were in his head, presumably.

The Frenchman killed them Panenka style and gave life to the king of the Champions League.

Long life.

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