City – Real, the football epic of “take everything”

What epic football. It enchants us, pulls us with a force greater than gravity. It empowers us and makes us maniacally search for answers.

Who will pass, who played better, who is the best player, who is the head coach? Who enchanted and who was unlucky, who should get a transfer, who should eat a bank.

And here comes this match. The first Champions League semi-final this year between City and Real. The game that first charmed us and then ripped our tongues out.

He laughed in our faces because instead of giving us an answer, he gave us all. Together, in the same 90 minutes.

Both took place in the same match

How do you stop the Manchester City football machine? It’s impossible, you can’t do it. Guardiola’s team will start and end the game as your boss, leaving you feeling hopeless for long periods of the game.

How do you kill Real Madrid? It’s impossible, you can’t do it. Merengues can fold when they’re under, they can win when they need to lose, even when they lose, they can do it in a way that makes them winners.

Both were taken down in the same match. Not just one, but both.

City’s shared brain

The city unfolds what it has on the lawn. Unprecedented development, stifling pressing, positional play derived from Guardiola’s unique ability to make his players move like different bodies but controlled by a common brain.

Pep saw that all players before Rodri had a goal. Mahrez came in central to kick where the dangerous crosses come from and put De Bruyne to the fish that opened the goal.

The Belgian served Jesσs in the box after Militao was hooked by Fontaine and led him to the corner to make it 2-0.

The Englishman’s turn came in the second half when he came into play as a striker, taking Fernandinho’s cross and hitting his head.

The icing on the cake from Silva as he couldn’t miss an individual goal, a personal energy and a fireball that made Courtois instinctively bend down, act like a kid in the schoolyard and say, ‘Okay, me won’t even hit me because they set my target”.

A flawless game

Everyone created/scored. How not to do it when City actually made a clean match. The individual faults are different, the overall operation is different. The English champions did what they set out to do, controlling the game from every part of the field and creating chances in every way.

Yes, they could have scored an even better goal on the counterattack, but on the other hand they put in three thanks to crosses. The final harvest of four goals does City’s performance no disservice.

Really, the exception to all the rules

But the bottom line? Zosimar fans know it, they’ve heard it multiple times. You can’t get along with Real in the Champions League. It applies almost every year, it also applies this year.

All teams pay for their mistakes, the bad nights. Teams are eliminated even if they are clearly superior, only for 1-2 unlucky moments, a mistake, a whistle, a contra.

All except Real. With the Queen, it’s the other way around. White shirts pass even when they make mistakes, even if they are worse than their opponents.

Benzema, hotter than hell

City did what it took to kill the Champions League jungle lion. And the lion returned to Madrid with the best defeat possible. Just a goal difference.

Was the difference in the grass that small? Not even mentally. And yet Real got up again. Because Benzema went to Medy’s cross with the psychology of the most trained performer in the world. Hotter than hell, left moving, beam and indoors.

Because Vinicius left Fernandinho in place and became Bale, running all over the field and scoring after Anderson initially stayed wrong in the small area until the end of the race.

Because again the freak moment was in favor of the queen. The ball found Laport’s hand, the referee couldn’t miss a penalty. It doesn’t matter if he found it on his head first, nor can he acquit a hand that is above shoulder height.

Perfect opportunity for Benzema. Not just to score, but to take our breath away. Panenka in Champions League semifinals, the ball to get high, is the closest thing to trigonometry of Zidane vs Buffon in the 2006 final.

Until we find breath

Football epic not only for the goals, the quality of the performances, the change of emotions. Especially because before the game we asked ourselves what was going to happen and the pitch answered: “Take everything”.

In the final, what Miguel Delaney wrote on Twitter applies. The semifinals had elements from the two classic car scenarios from previous years in the Champions League.

As is so often the case, Guardiola’s team should have achieved a better result, but they don’t. As is so often the case, Real should be dead, but it’s still breathing.

Until the rematch at Burnaby. Until we catch our breath after the first semi-final.