Real Madrid-Man City and Beckenbauer’s quip about ‘Los Blancos’
Things at La Cerámica ended badly for Villarreal in the end. However, for about an hour it seemed that an incredible upset was on the cards. The home side were dazzling in the first half playing with passion, dominating the game and with a two goal lead at the interval many believed that the side from Castellon were heading to the Champions League final. In the end, Tuesday’s game will go down in the club’s history. It was a Champions League semi-final, it was Villarreal bossing Liverpool for a half and it was great while it lasted. Things took a different pattern in the second 45 minutes as Liverpool pulled themselves together, showed their strength in the face of Villarreal’s progressive exhaustion with the home side struggling and falling into brief disarray as the Reds progressed. But that first half will always remain!
The Bernabéu awaits
A great game that, once it was over, seemed to us like an appetizer of what will unfold on Wednesday night at the Santiago Bernabéu. An historic side against that of a state-funded nouveau riche City, the magic of the Bernabéu against the science of Guardiola, Madrid players who grow when they pull on the famous white shirt, led by a coach who gives more advice than instructions, against the quality-laden energy of a very expensive group of players fuelled by Pep’s sophisticated idea of the game. City will provide a massive test as was the case with PSG and Chelsea in previous rounds with the English side having to prove their mettle on the very same stage where the Real Madrid hurricane blew away the sides from Paris and London.
Ticket to Paris
Plenty has been written in the past about this Bernabéu effect but it cannot be denied that, for big European games, the stadium does have ‘something’, a magic and a unique spirit that dwells in the Bernabéu that despite numerous stadium reforms over the years, it lives on and appears especially on European nights. There is been an online quip circulating with a supposed phrase by iconic German defender Franz Beckenbauer: “To win the Champions League you need a great team, a great coach and to beat Real Madrid”. I don’t know if the quote is true, but it deserves to be. City have a great team and a great coach. Today we will see if they add to those two conditions the main that overcoming Carlo Ancelotti’s men.