Manchester City-Real Madrid Varane opens the door to City

The League is a large consolation, although not so much as to hide the second consecutive elimination of Madrid in the second round of the Champions League. Especially when a time of austerity is announced that already begins to sound like austericide. Of Europe He left due to two unusual, tremendous errors, inappropriate for the character and the competition, from Varane. Two blows that put the tie light years away for a team that had left it half lost in Madrid, in lighter times for humanity and darker times for the white team. But the Frenchman's night of darkness should not smoke over a squad that needs deep reform. The UEFA territory demands a higher level.

In the old normal, City and Madrid would be kneading dough in Miami or Beijing, in games with more money than public, to spend it on blackbirds or skyblues before the end of the month. The new normal, which has an apocalyptic point, brought a giant game, in silence, which sounded like glory to the visitor, past date and time between the team that has walked the competition's red carpet the most times and another, made of gold and ivory, that has not yet set foot on the top.

Madrid, which has compensated by strengthening what Cristiano took, opted for the most daring solution for that position without an owner on the right of attack. Rodrygo played, the highest scorer of the aspirants, a footballer still to do but in which spark and finish can be guessed. On the 1-1 play, he agreed with Zidane.

City, in a way, were caught between the first leg marker and their territorial instinct. He could have this at the start, with an exaggeratedly advanced defense, a pressure that led him to the Madrid kitchen and a dance of attackers to erase traces of Zidane's team: Sterling on the right, Gabriel Jesús on the left and Foden from nine conjunctural.

A cold goal

Varane agreed with him with a monstrous error in the ball exit from his area. Gabriel Jesús cleaned the ball and Sterling put the shot at pleasure. More lead in the backpack a Madrid that had an arctic exit, as if that were the way and it started from scratch. And a tremendous blow for Varane, an orphan without Ramos, captain ashore.

From there, City put the game in the fist, with an extraordinary game inside and the flashes of Sterling, one of those rioters who when he enters the sprint invites us to get off to the shelter.

Madrid took twenty minutes to cover the wound and chain two good chances in one minute. Hazard walked in both, to assist Benzema, whose right hand Ederson guessed, and to test the Brazilian from afar. There Madrid seemed to catch the good wave. Kroos began to make the team more breathable and Modric stepped on terrain with more opportunities. It was enough for him to reach the tie, in highway and very temperate center of Rodrygo and Benzema's header, the only galactic still standing. That is what Madrid and Zidane have, an enormous capacity for survival in this reigning competition. You can't win thirteen orejonas without enough rennet to get out of mazes like that.

With Madrid's distance shooting tie, the third act of the first half opened. Again the wind blowing in favor of the City although without the initial intensity and Madrid trying to sneak through the gap in the bands. There was his greatest asset and also the weak point of the City. So the danger traveled from side to side at the speed of light. Courtois parried a shot from Cancelo and then gave a ball to Foden, who fired close to the post. Benzema did not fully catch a volley that canceled a previous offside. And De Bruyne, an extraordinary player in many areas of the field, good at running and from set pieces, was one inch away from the Olympic goal.

Varane, part two

In the second half, Madrid started the first, more activated and with a better plan. He took the game from band to band against a team that is better protected by the center than by the sides, although it was also overwhelmed at times. Casemiro was unusually out of his booth and no one seemed able to restrain De Bruyne, the City general.

When the time came for the rearguard (Asensio, Bernardo Silva …), the game is already half unstitched. Benzema got himself two good chances and Courtois saved two goals before Varane blew Madrid's good foot. On the blackest night that a central defender is reminded of, he failed in the first ball rained in a neutral zone and in the second he attempted a suicidal assignment to Courtois who gave the goal to Gabriel Jesús. That liquidated Madrid and paralyzed Zidane, who did not even look for the emergency exit with Isco or Vinicius. For the final arreón he reserved players who have left little in recent times: Lucas Vázquez, Valverde and Jovic. There were eight minutes left and the multi-change was cosmetic. Europe slammed Madrid another door. The first in Zidane's nose.