A Madrid that does not bite

There is one minute left to complete the half hour of the match at the Etihad. The meeting stops, but not because of any hydration break (there were none in Manchester). Carvajal over to Gabriel Jesus in the center of the field and the German Felix Brych signals a foul. It is the first that Madrid commits during the game. They do not sanction him another until 50 minutes later. In the final stretch of the match, Modric see the yellow one for tripping De Bruyne and five minutes later Kroos He takes down the Belgian to prevent him from entering the area.

Those three plays were all the infractions (outside the game aside) that a timorous Real Madrid committed in the decisive round of 16 match against Manchester City. An encounter that required grit and courage resulted in one of the less aggressive versions of the whites. The three fouls, in fact, equate the two Champions League games with the fewest fouls committed by Real Madrid in the last 15 years, since there are records of this statistic by Opta (the data start in the 2005-2006 season). The other two games in which Madrid came away with three fouls were the round of 16 first leg against Schalke in 2013-2014 (a placid 1-6 in Gelsenkirchen) and the last match of the 2017 group stage against Dortmund ( 3-2 in an inconsequential match at the Bernabéu).

Without going further, Madrid committed 13 fouls in the first leg in February. In the other European defeat of the season, in Paris, Zidane's men made 14, the same as later in the visit of PSG. Against Bruges, the Whites made 7 fouls at the Bernabéu and 10 in Belgium and against Galatasaray 4 in Istanbul and 5 at home. In the 156 Champions League games that Madrid has played in the fifteen seasons for which there are records, it has averaged an average of 12.36 fouls per game. This has been Madrid's cleanest European campaign (8.75 fouls per game, the fourth team that has done the least of the 32 participants) in the last decade and a half.

In the league, the game that he committed the least was 5 against Alavés and in the rest he always made a minimum of 8, for an average of 12.82 fouls per game. The champion was the eighth LaLiga Santander team with the fewest fouls (487) and the third with the fewest yellows (75). Although curiously in the individual section it has in its ranks the second player who has committed the most fouls: Casemiro made 87, 3 less than Yangel Herrera (who has played for Granada on loan precisely from Manchester City).

In general terms, City-Real Madrid was a white glove match. With the 8 that City did, the game collected a total of 11 fouls, the same as in the final that Tottenham and Liverpool starred in last year at the Wanda Metropolitano and that other nine games of the last 15 years (all of the group stage except the Schalke-Real Madrid referred to above). There have only been three matches of the highest competition audited with fewer fouls. The record is held by Dortmund-Tottenham in the second round of last season: just 7 infractions. So far this Champions League the average is 24.32 fouls per game.

Modric will miss the first match of the next Champions League

Despite the minimum number of fouls, the Etihad game had disciplinary consequences for Real Madrid. Luka Modric saw the yellow with which he meets the cycle and will miss the first match of the group stage next season (20 or 21 October). Perhaps against a Manchester City that, unless they win the Champions League, will be in Pot 2 as a potential rival for the Whites in the first phase.