Fewer stars, but more passion

An unexpected performance this season, but one that history suggested was always possible, produced a sensational Real Madrid victory over Manchester City, who had won at the Bernabéu in the first phase of the Champions League. Valverde’s monumental display, capped by his three goals, led an intelligent, rugged and selfless performance that the fans had demanded all season, but had not seen until now.

Whether it is down to Europe’s mystique will remain open to debate. In the Champions League, Madrid tends to discover different versions of itself, sometimes even contradictory ones, that give it a level of efficiency unknown to the rest of the field. Not even Bayern Munich, the other club that feels at home in soccer’s biggest and most stressful competition, comes close in reliability.

Real Madrid has built this first quarter of the century around established stars, the best the market had to offer. From Figo in 2000 to Mbappé in 2024, by way of Zidane, Ronaldo, Beckham, Cristiano, Bale, Bellingham and two dozen more global stars, its legacy has been tied less to systems and tactics than to the genius of its famous players. With rare exceptions – Hazard and Beckham among them – most delivered the difference they were supposed to make, whether in bursts and on grand occasions, as with Bale, or with remarkable consistency, as with Cristiano and Zidane.

Two truly extraordinary players, Kroos and Modric, signed for what now looks like a negligible fee given their contribution, held the team together for 10 years. They gave Madrid not so much architecture as science. They steered a team whose nature was never built around programmed, systematic, collective soccer, but the wisdom of those two wonderful midfielders lay in the way they connected their sense of order to the team’s pull toward disorder.

The two masters left Madrid, and the team has too often fallen into the sins of selfishness, collective neglect and lack of judgment, problems that showed up in Ancelotti’s final season and again in this one, under both Alonso and Arbeloa. Perhaps the most celebrated aspect of the victory over City was the team’s phenomenal collective display, with no cracks at all, not even when the English side threatened to tear Trent Alexander-Arnold apart in the opening 15 minutes.

Valverde, Tchouameni and anyone else in position to help came to the fullback’s rescue, including the very young Thiago Pitarch, who confirmed on such a special day the excellent display he had produced in Vigo, this time with help from Arda Güler and Brahim, players whose credentials as starters are often questioned but who proved instrumental in the success, just like Rüdiger and Huijsen. In generational terms, the outstanding game played by the youngest group on the field was especially significant.

It became obvious that Madrid’s collective drive would not have been possible with Bellingham and Mbappé on the field, even though there is no doubting their talent or influence. Madrid might still have won with two of the biggest stars in world soccer, but it is impossible to imagine anything close to the same collective flourish. This game will serve as a reminder when they return to their guaranteed places in the lineup.

The night almost collapsed into crisis in the opening quarter of an hour. City broke through down Madrid’s right flank, though they failed to turn that superiority into anything decisive. Two players shaped the game’s direction: O’Reilly, unable to cut out a good pass and easy for the English fullback to spot, and Valverde, who was just beginning his fabulous exhibition. He scored the first and second, the latter gifted inexplicably by Donnarumma. In both, and again in the third, he played with the authority of those players who seize a game and leave their opponents with nothing.

City was knocked out by its mistakes on the first two goals. It became a completely different team from the one seen in the first 15 minutes. What had frightened Madrid in that spell never happened again. What had not troubled City until then became an unsolvable problem. Valverde caught fire, and the rest of the team followed him without hesitation in a performance that thrilled the Bernabéu.

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