Real Madrid-Borussia M. Europa giant to Madrid

Zidane also came out of this, like so many. No one walks so gracefully on the edge of the abyss. He has an almost cinematographic career, the kind in which everything ends well. This time he had little to do with his lucky stars. An emotionally stable Madrid, disciplined, pressing, determined and with a plan disfigured Borussia in the first half and was able to massacre him in the second. There was also a soloist, Benzema, who finished off the work with two head-butts of classic stamp. Two goals that put an end to the misadventures of Madrid in this Champions League and that put him in the hype of the beasts, which will now bite others.

Zidane managed better teams than this one (with Cristiano the sun shines more), but the ups and downs from Wednesday to Sunday and vice versa that the current one is used to has more to do with the application than with the workforce. “When the players have to put, they put”, explained the French with the victory in San Siro still hot. Against Borussia, with the weight of history in their backpacks, with the prestige of the club on the wire, they put on. From the beginning, with self-denial, which is a substitute for excellence, with nerve and a sense of responsibility. A team together, orderly, not permissive, not distracted, definitely on a mission.

Benzema's goals

A mission that began to fulfill soon with a goal that speaks of the best virtues of the moment: a steal from Casemiro, the sacrifice; a Lucas Vázquez center, the will; and a header from Benzema, the last galactic vestige. That time when Madrid wandered and got out of trouble with his punch will not return. Now he has to press fire, steal up, play together, all for all instead of all for one (Cristiano). With that you can still go far.

The first thing the party left is that Lucas Vazquez has found a job. With three alleged right-backs on the bench, Zidane preferred him. The Galician gave him the reason almost always that he put him from that multidisciplinary profile that the canteranos assume so well. From his side, with the accompaniment of Rodrygo, Madrid began the assault. And it was once again a vertebrate animal with Ramos, Casemiro and Benzema, the usual route, plus Modric, which aspires to be eternal, whether they renew it or not. He has 23 games in two months and there are no worrisome signs in his energy load.

Eternal Modric

Before and after the goal, Madrid was the same: high and effective pressure and absolute control of the scene. The general attitude proved that the team thought the Europa League what it did to Gabi after that athletic puncture against Qarabag that left an eschatologically famous phrase. In the midst of that blow of authority, Plea had the tie, to remind Madrid that when there is a German team around, things always happen. Sometimes too many things, as history shows. But Plea stung too crossed his shot against Courtois. Rose, who was worth the draw, did not change the instinct of the team and joined the Frenchman with his compatriot Thuram and the Swiss Embolo, three panthers. But the midfield that was supposed to start them drowned in the white pressure.

Before the break, Madrid took more momentum. Benzema found the second goal in a Rodrygo banana, in another pure nine header, which he never was and probably wanted to be. It was the prelude to the Modric festival and that catchy and effective game at the same time. He sent a shot to the post, they annulled a goal, ordered and stole, he was for the visible and the invisible, all in the Ballon d'Or version. In a team that cannot wait for the help of the cavalry until June because the treasury imposes it. , a player like the Croatian, hard-working and talented in equal measure, is a good perch for almost everything.

The Arribas tunnel

At 2-0, Rose changed players and uniform, from 4-2-3-1 to 4-3-3, with Zakaria to stop the bleeding in midfield. It seemed more like a protection maneuver than a reaction, but Lázaro, the newcomer, was as little frontier for Lucas Vázquez as Wendt. Borussia does not frequent the Champions League and that lack of profession is paid in this football from above.

Madrid only lacked Vinicius to complete the melody. He is an unfinished player, of misdeeds, but lacking in continuity. That is what makes Zidane, a devotee of long-distance and reliable footballers, doubt. There Rodrygo fits better, who left his best game in Madrid. He is a more synthetic player, less fun, but who has been catching the air on the right wing. Borussia was reduced to Plea, their lone wolf, to whom Madrid did not give too much quarter.

To desserts Arribas entered, the elf from the quarry, European youth champion, in the middle of the Madrid festival: Sommer saves to shots from Benzema, Kroos and Ramos and zapatatas to the post of the Frenchman and Lucas Vázquez. The Swiss was uselessly heroic in that final stretch. Arribas dispatched his first ball with a tunnel, the same one that Madrid took to be in the second round and not stain their history.