Miracles only happen once in a blue moon
Thibaut Courtois was once again Herculean in his efforts, flashing into action to keep Real Madrid alive. The Belgian specialises in saves that drain the energy and belief from his opposition, because it already looks like it’s in before he claws, kicks or wills the ball clear. This time Erling Haaland was the victim, with the prolific Norwegian neutralised and beating the ground in frustration. And despite those normally decisive factors, the 4-0 scoreline felt short if anything. Manchester City gave Real Madrid ‘a bath’ as they say in Spain – this was more like sending them through an industrial car wash.
Resigned, there was no dressing this up. ‘They were better than us’, said Dani Carvajal, then Courtois, then Carlo Ancelotti, once for television and then again for the written press. “I had a special feeling before the game that this team was ready,” remarked Pep Guardiola – so did the Etihad Stadium, and those watching around the world. They were watching something special. Constantly building, growing, burgeoning, City’s first half was a crescendo of hunger, revenge, intelligence and refined quality. They came together for 45 minutes that were just as artistic as City were dominant.
“I remember Toni Kroos said some months ago that it could have been 10-1 last season, but Real Madrid don’t lose like that,” continued Guardiola. “If someone like Toni Kroos says that, you’re there. It hurt the way we lost last season,” Guardiola rasped, half exhaustion, half adrenaline. Looking maniacal all evening, dressed in all black, you got the feeling from his own Cholo-esque exhibition that he at least had been building towards this all season too.
Since Guardiola left Barcelona, Los Blancos have been his troll under the bridge, aside from the many online. While City did knock out Real Madrid in 2020, it was in front of no fans, with little sense of occasion and an undercooked opposition. At Bayern Munich and last year, Real Madrid posed him riddles he could not solve, denying Guardiola a sense of, for want of a better word, completion. The crescendo died before it peaked. Last night brought back terrors for Madridistas of when the Catalan coach was their bane.
Before the inquests begin in Spain (if you listen carefully, you can detect howls over the longwave), especially that of Florentino Pérez, City’s performance should take a far more prominent role than Real Madrid’s lack of one. “There is no doubt. Nobody has any doubts. I think the President was quite clear the other day,” Ancelotti answered the first of many more questions about his future, charm temporarily disabled for this press conference.
Those inquests must cast back to last season. Against Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea, the fashion of their victories was riveting, but neither were they outmatched by those teams. The formula, to boil it down to the two elements without which it could not function, were Courtois’ heroics and Karim Benzema’s clinics.
Facing City, for vast swathes of the 2022 tie, Los Blancos were forced to be submissive. They engineered their comebacks in both games by hanging on for dear life, inducing chaos when it suited them, and being more effective. The stars, particularly Rodrygo Goes, aligned to make a miracle. Without Benzema at his best, there was little sign of a comeback this time. Their two game-changers, Rodrygo and Eduardo Camavinga, were already part of the problem now that they occupy a role in the starting XI. In the second half of the first leg, or the spell where they pressed high into City’s half at the start of the second period in Manchester, Real Madrid did things they could not do last season. They can press, they are physically stronger, and Vinícius Júnior’s revenge tour is quite the spectacle.
Yet perhaps their ceiling is lower. Benzema is naturally a major part of that, but should you find yourself hanging on for dear life, as they were on Wednesday night, most would opt for Casemiro over Kroos in the deepest midfield role. Based on last night, many would choose Ferland Mendy over Camavinga in the same circumstances. On top of that, they weren’t at the Santiago Bernabéu. When Real Madrid tried to crank up the pressure early in the second half, they found there was no special feeling of their own, no crowd to carry them forward on the crest of their wave – Carletto isn’t really the roaring type.
Much was made of Real Madrid’s ability to handle momentum swings, their understanding of the moment. And when it was the moment for Real Madrid to get back into it, David Alaba and Kroos showed hints of rebellion from distance, but they were met with a firm, confident response that they would have been proud of.
There will be no miracles here, City said, borrowing Nathan Coley’s art installation for the occasion. As the Madrid press sharpen their words though, they would do well to remember the most popular of managerial proverbs, adjustable for both victory and defeat – ‘We weren’t so good then, and we aren’t so bad now.’