Real Madrid are winners. They haven’t been giving it their all in La Liga because they were focused on the Champions League. Except that tonight, after the first leg (1-1), Real Madrid did not win, and it was not a close game. Los Blancos finished the game at the Etihad with a 4-0 thrashing. It was not a pretty picture for the renowned Champions League experts.
The worst of it, however, is that this was foreseeable, and if the game had been played for another ninety minutes, the same result or a worse score would be the consequence. Madrid ran, ran, and ran. Yet City kept the ball, sustained pressure, and forced Real Madrid into inaccuracies, inaccuracies that became chances. This was not a close match, but one side subjugating the other team as it wished to. In the past seasons, City were criticised for their rigidity and inflexibility, besides a weak mentality, as they suffered a frustrating comeback from the eventual Champions League winners, Real Madrid.
This second leg was different, though. Manchester City are not psychologically fragile, and they are flexible. They have Erling Haaland, and Julian Alvarez, a World Cup winner yet only featuring from the eighty-ninth minute (and still scored a goal, less than two minutes after). Pep Guardiola did not take risks, there were no surprises. It paid off.
Camavinga, a midfielder that has gradually won over the hearts of Madridistas, was once again placed as left-back, often relying on his box-to-box expertise and incredible athleticism to beat his man. The problem, though, is that he rarely saw possession of the ball. Instead, he did not even defend against a ‘natural’ winger. He defended against Bernardo Silva. On paper, this you would assume is a feasible task. But it is in the brain, in the simplicity of the game, that the Portuguese won most of his 1v1’s against Camavinga.
As he touched the ball wide, drawing out Camavinga, he drifted back towards the half-space. The Frenchman, now caught out of position, is suddenly seeing Bernardo Silva with time and space, to either shoot (and that’s the first goal), or cross it for Haaland or Gundogan to take a shot. That shows best why Camavinga is unlikely to be a long-term left-back – he’s not a natural defender, and that explains why Ancelotti subbed Antonio Rudiger on in the second half. Camavinga was out of water, and Bernardo’s simplicity gave him an incredible advantage.
4-0s can rarely be explained through individuals. Camavinga was not alone in his struggle. Karim Benzema, Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo Goes ran. But they didn’t run riots, as tends to be the case. That’s because they rarely got the ball, no matter how much they effort they put in. Against a double-pivot composed of former centre-back John Stones and Rodri Hernandez, getting the ball is hard. When Kroos tried to run after Rodri, he would find Stones without complications, and he’d advance forward with the advantage on Kroos.
Sustained pressure was a major problem for Real Madrid. No matter how much they defended, City kept finding a way forward, through their rest defence. Any clearance would return the ball in City’s hands, and often in Real Madrid’s half.
It’s impossible to attack without the ball. Real Madrid wanted the it, but never retained it for extended minutes, frequently running out of solutions to the approaching City press. Even Kroos, usually calm and composed, barely found his targets or made his through-balls. Only two instances, where Vinicius was quickly shut down by Kyle Walker, incredibly rapid and accurate in his recovery, and Ederson had the right anticipation to shut down any half-chance. There were virtually no phases where the average fan thought of Madrid threatening the host’s goal.
What’s probably the most impressive, still, is that City played their way. What they’ve played throughout the season. For years, positional play was frowned upon, deemed not good enough because of the structural needs and supposed rigidity. Madrid, supposedly, had shut it down in the past two editions of the Champions League.
But on this day, City were calm, still. When they built up a 2-0 advantage, they remained so. They passed around Madrid, without much risk, and often, without advancing much. It was Pep’s men asking Ancelotti’s guards what they were planning to do to overturn a 2-0 deficit with half an hour of the game left. That answer was not found, and after Eder Militao gave up an own goal, everyone knew it was over. Beyond the score, it was the how. Ancelotti and Real Madrid, a team known for its transitions and chaos momentums, had not played a single minute of their preferred scenario, nor anything close to it.
Manchester City didn’t only humiliate the Champion League winners. They made them dance and run, only to cash in goals, despite Thibaut Courtois miraculously finding great saves to bat away Haaland’s shots and headers. It didn’t matter, because instead of Vinicius dancing, the entire team danced to the tune of a bittersweet semi-final elimination.