Real Madrid-Shakhtar Benzema, millennium falcon

It is not reductionism: Madrid begins in Vinicius, ends in Benzema and does not go through almost anyone else. The Frenchman scored the goal of the millennium and the next. And the Brazilian gave him both. From the fluent conversation between two players who had not married for a long time, he drew a meager and, in a way, worrying victory. The team left a mark of physical and emotional exhaustion, especially on their trio of midfielders, that national monument that no one dares to touch. The fainting of Madrid made Shakhtar gigantic, which was not the one from Kiev. De Zerbi has greatly westernized his game. He did not play to lose, but this Champions League is already gone.

The match invited strabismus, because Madrid played for the Champions League, with pending qualification, and for posterity, with the 1,000th goal in the competition in search of an author. And in a way the double objective distracted the team despite the fact that Ancelotti pulled his ten fixed plus Lucas Vázquez in that position that must be looked up in the dictionary of doubts. Of those who aspire to the square, the Galician is the one who puts his elbows the most without the ball. With him the team can defend in a 4-4-2 in the second phase of the accordion operation. That first Madrid of Ancelotti, who staged festivals in both areas (mainly in the foreign area), has led to a more contained team, with less fist and better jaw.

This time he returned to the origins, to the back and forth of occasions for and against, saving the preambles. So he threw himself on a team that plays one thing in its League and suffers to play another in Europe. Shakhtar is extremely territorial in Ukraine and this summer they brought in a coach, De Zerbi, who encourages that natural inclination, but the Champions League is the high altar and there he is obliged to protect himself more than necessary. Costs. As much as Madrid the withdrawal.

So the action started early. Trubin prevented Modric from entering the story by intuitively reaching in with his right hand to get a shot from point-blank range. And Alan Patrick responded with a cross shot to the post. The night promised … and it turned out. Because at a quarter of an hour Vinicius got the ball up early to the very soft Marlon, to which Trubin put a garden almost in a small area, and opened the door of history to Benzema. It was a full-fledged donation to the French, who started out as a cat and is now a millennium falcon. Nobody better than him to hang that medal. And no one better than Vinicius to impose the distinction on him. Two perfect strangers turned into an ideal couple who would repeat the maneuver later.

The problem is that reached the secondary objective Madrid forgot the main one. He stopped pushing, handed the ball over, and plunged into a poisonous blackout. Fernando had the equalizer after a long period of Ukrainian domination, a team that has its own with the ball. His shot too crossed did not disturb the scoreboard, but it did upset the Bernabéu, who expected something different after a hectic start. This stadium is not lazy to protest in the least.

Things got worse. Madrid had the Kiev match on their minds, in which they thrashed at will, chaining cons, and abandoned so alarmingly that they ended up giving up the tie. Fernando’s was a goal very consistent with Shakhtar, carefully crafted: deep and precise pass from central Matvienko, trained to go out with the ball played, to Alan Patrick, touch of his chest and shot on Fernando’s march. Before the break, the Brazilian had the second. Courtois avoided it with a good stretch. Madrid went to the locker room without regaining consciousness and the talk at halftime was not removed from that state either. And Shakhtar, with the young Mudryk leading Carvajal to the ropes, put on the table that he has more than he offered in the first leg.

In the middle of that thicket, Madrid linked a play from another game. Maybe from another time. Lucas, Modric, Casemiro (spur), Vinicius and Benzema, who also scored the 1,001 mark, embroidered the set at a speed that was difficult to follow with their eyes. A spectacular goal in a flat match.

What came next did not improve on what came before. Madrid wanted to protect themselves with the ball and not even that came out completely. The Shakhtar continued to arrive, feigning without giving, and Ancelotti was losing assets: he retired Carvajal, who had been asking for the time for a long time, and Benzema retired touched. Madrid’s season largely depends on his health. So the fans will look at the medical part with the concern of those who contemplate the arrival of a hurricane.

With great difficulty, with Jovic, without approaching Trubin, asking for the time, entrusted to the last stops of Courtois, Madrid reached the shore. Two shots of light served him this time to get to safety, but at this point he must be clear that this will not be worth it when in the eighth and later bass drum they open the cage of lions.