Perhaps the most accurate summation of Real Madrid’s semi-final second leg against Manchester City was susbtitute Rodrygo. The young Brazilian winger came on in the 68th minute, meaning he played nearly an hour; including extra-time. In that period, he only had 14 passes, eight of which were in the opposition half; a sign of not amounting to much, of supposedly being inconsequential. Yet, he scored twice, and played a key part in Real Madrid’s other goal. And that, in microcosm, has been Real Madrid in Europe this season; a kind of absurd efficiency that defies any sense of reasoning.
For more defiance of logic, peep this; Real Madrid fell behind in the 94thsecond of this tie, and were always behind until the 90th minute of the second leg. Ergo, they were pretty much behind for 180 minutes of a tie that was normally set for 180 minutes. They were 2-0, 3-1, 4-2, and 5-3 down on aggregate, the last of which was the case after 90 minutes of the second leg. Yet after 94 minutes, they were winning the tie, and never looked like losing once they went in front.
‘The Champions League unlocks special powers’, Toni Kroos once said in regards to Real. And at this point, you could say it’s fated to do so for the club. Time and time again they were on the cusp of elimination, and time and time again they’ve survived. It’s not just that they were battered against City in the first leg. It’s not just that they faced a combined 48 shots against Chelsea in the quarter-final and were on the ropes for the second leg. Or that they were second-best for more than two-thirds of the Last 16 tie against Paris St Germain. It’s also that they were on the ropes against Wolfsburg in 2016, were hanging on against Bayern Munich in 2018, the same year they nearly blew it against Juventus. It’s that they’d pretty much lost the final to Atletico Madrid in 2014, and yet won it. That even when they were losing to Chelsea in the semis last year – and they did lose that one – there was still a sense of something going to happen. It’s simple; they just won’t die. Or at least, they can’t seem to stay dead.
The question is what is it, really? What makes Real Madrid so unkillable and irresistible in this competition? Premium game management? A team that knows how to play within itself and keep itself ripe for the most decisive moments? Or just sheer unadulterated will? The answer is as inconclusive as it is irrelevant. They’re just Real Madrid. They bend fate to their will and make the narrative work for them.
At times, especially this season, playing Real Madrid is like being a character in a story that’s not yours. Sorry if you get bitten, but this isn’t about you. And when the narrative arc takes hold, you can only seem to watch it unfold; helpless, desperate, defeated, beaten, and broken. It doesn’t matter if you’re the better team, that’s not the point. The point is that when Los Blancos will destiny to do their bidding, yours is shafted to the side.
In typical fated fashion, there’s always the temptation to ask what might have been. What if one of Jack Grealish’s efforts had gone in? Or Edouard Mendy hadn’t made that mistake at Stamford? What if Gigi Donnaruma wasn’t so reckless and Lionel Messi had scored that penalty. What if the referee had blown the whistle early in Lisbon eight years ago? Or Antoine Griezmann’s penalty in 2016 had been half an inch lower? Or Mohamed Salah hadn’t hurt his shoulder in Kiev? There have been questions for Real in every step of the way, in pretty much every year. But they just won’t be unseated. And as far as narratives go, it’s quite poetic that the bastion of European heritage and eternal kings of the continent have seen PSG, Chelsea and Man City – the faces of new money in European football.
It’s easy to get swept up in the Real hysteria and carried away in the romance of it all. That Real are displaying special powers doesn’t mean there are no problems regarding this side. At some point, they’ll need Eduardo Camavinga to dictate games from the off rather than redirect games late on. That midfield is still an aged one. Dani Carvajal has lost a yard and a bit and has become defensively suspect, to put it mildly. The drop off in quality when Karim Benzema is unavailable is telling, and for all the brilliant work of Carlo Ancelotti, that was still a managerial appointment of a club afraid to engage in a rebuilding that’s due. Ultimately, eleventh hour skin-of-the-teeth escapes are unsustainable, and in final opponents Liverpool, there might be a team with the tools to really bust that sense of fate.
But you witness what Real continue to pull off and you see why that romance remains. Why it doesn’t matter what tools you have when the side from the Spanish capital dial it up and get going. At some point, Real Madrid will probably have to die. But many have come for the king, and the king still stands.
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