Sometimes football exceeds every expectation. Rarely has a form of entertainment left the viewer with the surreal sensation that they have just witnessed the impossible as often as this one. As Real Madrid looked to recover their a 1-0 deficit from the first leg in Paris, that is exactly what happened.
For all the narrative of another fairy-tale night at the Santiago Bernabeu, for the majority of this match it appeared this would be a homage to football’s next biggest footballer, Kylian Mbappe.
Real Madrid huffed and carried little threat in the first half, restricted to one or two Karim Benzema headers from distance. Without the ball, they puffed considerably harder. Several times Mbappe left the Real Madrid defence out of breath as he zoomed behind Dani Carvajal and Eder Militao.
Having already had one disallowed by VAR for offside, Mbappe’s goal eventually came by virtue of a beautiful first-time pass from Neymar Jr. PSG strolled off at half-time as Real Madrid trudged, seemingly with the dye cast on tomorrow’s papers.
Little changed in the opening minutes of the second period. Mbappe once again escaped and produced an irresistible dummy, which embarrassed even Thibaut Courtois, only for VAR to erase the ensuing finish based for offside.
The tie ambled onwards to this rhythm with little to suggest it would change. Enter, Karim Mostafa Benzema.
A seemingly innocuous sequence of play led to Gianluigi Donnarumma giving the ball away under pressure from Benzema. Vinicius collected the gift and provided a simple finish for Benzema.
The Santiago Bernabeu needed one single beacon of hope to ignite the entire stadium and in a mere 17 minutes, it would all be over for the Parisians.
The second Madrid goal, levelling the tie, came by virtue of a Marquinhos mistake, who cleared the ball to Luka Modric. His pass set Benzema up for a close-range finish, after he had launched the move with a heroic run from midfield.
Under 11 seconds it took from the subsequent kick off, as Real Madrid raced up the field and settled the tie. Benzema didn’t even break stride as he slotted the ball into the bottom corner with the outside of his foot.
Panic had ensued in the PSG team. Pandemonium had taken hold in the Bernabeu. Mauricio Pochettino helplessly made substitutions – it didn’t really matter. As much as Real Madrid had achieved their impossible, PSG had been plunged back into their nightmare, a trauma not even Mbappe was resistant too.
3-2 it finished on aggregate to Real Madrid. It could have been any score, it would still have reflected the grit, mental strength and number of other things PSG don’t have. Whatever those differential factors were, Real Madrid are still in possession of ‘it’.
Real Madrid powered by Karim “Mercedes’ Benzema showed the P.S.G failed experiment how Champions rise to the top even in the shadow of death. What a performance by Los Merengues, and yet I can only say Messi and Neymar Jr. were non factors yesterday.