![]() They have defied logic in the past but surely never as much as they have done this season. Could they impact on the league campaign?Īnd so Real advance, breathlessly, into a repeat of the 2018 final – in which they beat Liverpool – their sights set on a fifth triumph in this competition in eight years. ![]() They will attempt to bounce back by retaining their Premier League title but the wounds from this will remain open for a long time. This only reinforced it.Ĭity have fallen short previously under Guardiola – in the competition that they crave more than any other – not least in last season’s final against Chelsea. Kevin De Bruyne had said that winning a first Champions League would change the external narrative around the club. The tie had been spiky from start to finish and how the Bernabéu crowd howled when Pep Guardiola, their bête noire from his Barcelona days, remonstrated with the officials as the City dream headed towards dust.ĭid City have anything left? Foden drew a diving save out of Courtois with a header at the end of the first period of extra time but the broad answer was no. Rodrygo heads in a stoppage-time goal to take the semi-final second leg into extra time. Overall for Real this season, Benzema has 43 goals in 43 appearances. It was his 15th goal of the Champions League campaign and, incredibly, his 10th in the knockout rounds. This time, he slotted low inside Ederson’s left-hand post. And everybody knew what was coming next.īenzema had kept Real in the tie at the end of the first-leg with an ice-in-the-veins Panenka. It was a tired challenge from Rúben Dias on Karim Benzema, who had nipped in front of the City defender and on to a low Rodrygo cross – an obvious penalty. On into extra time and there was a measure of inevitability about how Real got the next goal, not to mention the identity of the scorer. Rodrygo had almost completed a stoppage-time hat-trick at the end of normal time, stealing in to extend Ederson, when Phil Foden received a quick free-kick and saw glory beckon. It was the way that the footballing gods, with whom Real appear to have a deal with options, tormented them. The City substitute Jack Grealish had seen a shot miraculously hacked off the line by Ferland Mendy in the 87th minute and he then watched Thibaut Courtois stick out a toe to divert a shot from him just past the far post.
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