Vinicius and De Bruyne sign for draw in penultimate Champions League chess match
Real Madrid can play for anything before a big game. Lose in La Liga and leave second place to Atlético Madrid or win a Copa del Rey while thinking about Manchester City. Such is the team Ancelotti has put together.
The Italian coach and Guardiola knew that the eyes of the world were on that game. The best teams, the best players, the best coaches and the best possible stadium with its fifth new pitch of the season. Anything for another Champions League final.
The game of chess was evident from the first minute. City dominated the ball and summoned Real Madrid to come out of their millimetric formation to find an opening. But the watchword was not to get into that fateful game that could have annihilated Real Madrid. Defending tight in the centre and attacking on the flanks with two players who are at the top of their game. Camavinga is a converted full-back who ate up Silva and Carvajal has reduced his mistakes to almost zero and had a great battle with Grealish who he forced to attack through the middle.
Kroos, Modric and Valverde gave a recital of pressure and ball control. Guardiola saw how Gündogan and Rodri were unable to match the intelligence of these three players and the Spaniard made a major mistake that Vinicius took advantage of to set up Benzema for a good ball that Días pulled out under the sticks.
The movements were precise. No one missed his passes. Nobody took any risks. But neither team was boring because the attacks were real once they controlled the ball. City moved the Real Madrid block and Los Blancos put their game on the boots of the electric Vinicius and his eternal passing combination with Benzema and Rodrygo.
Haaland went from nightmare to fairytale when they found Antonio Rüdiger. The German is the perfect player for this kind of play and he denied the Norwegian who, for one chance he had, found Alaba, who crawled half a second before the shot and blocked the chance in a gesture much celebrated by his team-mates.
Walker was called upon to stop Vinicius. The veteran City player held off the Brazilian onslaught, but he was unable to stop a move never seen before: a run parallel to the box and a right-footed shot that Ederson could not stop.
That goal made Guardiola desperate. Not because of the goal, it was the impotence of seeing how he dominated the game and how Real Madrid always win. That curse of the teams that visit the White House with the Champions League anthem in the background.
The referee played a good game. He controlled the tension between the players and set the bar high for cards in the first few minutes. He even benefited Madrid in some turnovers that could have created problems.
But, as Ancelotti said, he lost concentration for a few minutes which resulted in De Bruyne's goal. The great strike from outside the box to beat Courtois was preceded by an offside that he did not call. Replays showed evidence of a mistake that cannot be allowed at such a high level and that VAR or other technology must prevent.
Los Blancos did not lose control of the game. They knew the importance of scoring another goal and tried until the last moment with a Benzema header saved by Ederson. The Frenchman was not as sharp as expected and is the man to expect in the second leg.
A draw at the Bernabeu. The game will go to the Manchester board. In between, Real Madrid will have a league fixture and Guardiola another battle not to lose the Premier League lead because Arsenal will not make it easy for them.