The start of the round of 16 in the Champions League is exciting every year. It’s the time of drama, of big moments, of games that make history, of 90 minutes where football shines.

It’s like when the NBA playoffs start, “Stop the jokes, let’s get to the tournament.” This year’s opening of the curtain was rather disappointing. Paris-Real was obviously the pairing that anyone who can watch Sporting-City would prefer if they’re not a fan of either side.

Like the glow of Men in Black

The fight in Paris was boring until the 94th minute. Then Ebape came and made us forget everything in no time. Its sheen blinded our eyes like the tool Men in Black had.

Within a second everything we had seen in the match was erased. Within a second, all that was left was Ebape’s brilliance, the present and the future of football.

A fight that didn’t belong in today

For 93 minutes we saw a game that in no way belongs to today. Neither its rhythm, nor the protagonists. The game was like a time machine going back to the mid 2000’s to games that only offered bets and nothing more.

The faces; The definition of had been. Montrich and Kroos in the center of Real. None of them have the best years of their careers ahead of them.

Messi, the one who gave us the most ‘shining seconds’ than any other footballer, is also a thing of the past.

You know he can still “do something”. And at the same time, you know that possibility is less than ever.

Benzema shines this year but he was injured and unable to offer a sickeningly passive Real, with behavior only justified when you won the first game at home 1-0 and played the second leg with 10 players.

Real and Pochettino’s miserable trick

who stays Donaroma but who has ever watched football aiming to enjoy a goalkeeper? Vinicius yes, but he’s still immature and two things put him out of the game.

Real passivity and Pochettino’s trick. The Argentine put Paris 3-4-3 in the occupation phase. Danilo was the 3rd stopper on the right and Hakimi scored on the same side as an extreme.

Vinicius had to drop deep to score and Danilo’s dedication never let him go behind the back of defense on a long ball from below.

The two moments before goal

who stays Ebape. It seemed early on that there is nothing else in the match. He belongs to today, he is part of tomorrow, those would be the moments of the game.

In the 18th minute he took Messi’s wonderful lob from below and left him behind Carvajal, but Courtois told him ‘no’ to the shot from a lateral position.

In the 50th minute he took the “bite” from Hakimi (who managed to be in the semicircle thanks to Pochettino’s trick), executed immediately but was blocked again by Courtois.

Ten minutes later, he again capitalized on the scare he caused Carvajal and won a penalty, but Messi showed again why the white ball is the only point on the field where he is mediocre and not alien, mortal and not god is.

The Last Sphere

And when it all seemed over, Ebape had one last try. He took the ball at the last minute and was teleported. He had Vazquez and Militao in front of him and a second later he had them behind him.

Courtois had no answer, the ball in the net and the planet with a sentence in his mouth. What has he done; He did what he could. He is the one who is not trapped in space and at the same time the one who is not trapped even when there is no space.

The teleportation

It was in the summer of 2018 when we first wrote about Ebape being teleported. It was in France-Argentina 4-3 that the little one shone at the World Cup, significantly on the same day that Messi and Ronaldo were eliminated.

At the time, the planet was stunned by the pace of the first-half race and the place to go 4-2, but we had stood on his first goal. “The little one stood still, opponents in front of him and as he brought the ball to the left it was like being teleported without anyone noticing that he found space and time to execute undisturbed..

We wrote a teleportation back then, he did that against Real yesterday. Then, You can’t always find places to walk. The question is what do you do when there is no space. Since then, in the summer of 2018, Ebape seemed to have both.

In 2019 we wrote Killian Ebape, the Phenomenon No. 2 and some people got mad. Three years later they may have been convinced. It does not matter.

What matters is the glow that blinded us last night. The goal that saved Paris, the goal that defeated Real.

The goal that pulled us out of a game that had no place in football’s present, the goal that brought us to today and made us think about the future.