From Madrid with hopes – Kommersant
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The first half of the Champions League semi-final confrontation between Real Madrid and Manchester City ended in Madrid with a score of 1:1. Thus, ahead of the second leg, which will take place on May 17 in Manchester, the English club is still the favorite, although their opponent definitely has a chance of reaching the final.
The spring results in the championships of Spain and England clearly indicated that the favorite of this pair is Manchester City, which last year lost to Real in the Champions League just at the semi-final stage. The aging stars of the Madrid club – such as 37-year-old Luka Modric, 35-year-old Karim Benzema and 33-year-old Toni Kroos – were opposed by Pep Guardiola’s perfectly tuned football mechanism, in which Enling Haaland, the world’s best striker at the moment, looked like the most reliable part.
Manchester City took over the initiative immediately. True, the first dangerous shot on goal by Thibaut Courtois, one of the leaders of the English champion Kevin de Bruyne, struck only in the 8th minute. After some time, the Belgian goalkeeper had to reflect the ball after Rodrigo Hernandez’s shot from another bottom corner to his left. Then twice at the forefront of the attacks of the guests was Haaland. In general, already a quarter of an hour after the start of the game, the reality for Real Madrid looked even more severe than expected.
Having managed to slightly move the game away from their gates, Madrid practically did not pretend to open an account. However, in the 36th minute, they suddenly demonstrated that team and individual skill that allows Real Madrid to remain an unconditional European giant even in a not the most successful season for it. Modric played a wall with Eduardo Camavinga in the center of the field, he passed to Vinicius, and the brilliant Brazilian, whom no one met, without thinking twice, fired like a cannon past the goalkeeper Ederson from outside the penalty area.
This simple but spectacular attack, which ended with the first and immediately effective strike of Real Madrid, did not seem to correspond to the logic of the struggle. Manchester City began to press again, but before the break was limited to only half-moments. The second half started differently. “Real” no longer pressed against their gates there, as at the beginning of the match. Until some time, this paid off, after which the partners brought De Bruyne almost one on one with Courtois, and he only with the help of his right hand successfully put to the side, averted the threat from the far corner. Real Madrid responded with a series of attacks and another nasty attack from Vinicius and an intricate corner kick from Modric, which made the away fans flinch. And only after it seemed that the hosts were already taking the initiative into their own hands, Manchester City equalized the score. It all started with an unsuccessful forward pass by Camavinga, intercepted by his opponents. The guests used this sawn-off one hundred percent: De Bruyne’s blow from approximately the same point from which Viniciusus hit turned out to be no less accurate and powerful. Of course, Courtois could not reflect the ball flying at such a speed.
Further events seemed to hint at the fact that Real Madrid is still able to complete this meeting in its favor. In any case, Benzema was much more noticeable than Haaland, who was closed by the defenders, and it is strange that Guardiola, who believed in the Norwegian to the last, did not make a single substitution. Carlo Ancelotti, in turn, tried to freshen up his squad a bit by removing Modric, Kroos and Rodrigo from the field. But Aurelien Chuameni, who was entrusted to play for about ten minutes, did not have enough luck after a long-range strike. As a result, a draw – 1:1. The score in this case is absolutely on the game, and despite the fact that Manchester City will be the owner of the field in the return match, nothing is clear in this pair. At home, Guardiola’s explosive team will certainly try to act as the first number from beginning to end, but practice shows that their defense is far from perfect. Therefore, the most experienced Ancelotti may well count on counterattacks and the result he needs.
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