Sheriff-Real Madrid A walk towards the second round

Madrid was hardly going to trip twice over a stone the size of the Sheriff. This time he took it seriously and fulfilled the mission of getting into the round of 16 smoothly. For those of Ancelotti it is the minimum required. For the Moldovans, the peak came when they entered the group stage. The Europa League, in which they will continue, is a recreational trip. Madrid did not give a football course but it did give a risk prevention course. He resolved in the first part and spent the second in Moldovan field, letting time pass. This time he did not need Vinicius in airplane mode and half Benzema was enough. The dark side of the game was Alaba’s injury. Bayern’s regrets about his departure during the week explain how well he has fitted in at Madrid.

Carlo Ancelotti has been in Madrid long enough to know which club and Champions are indivisible. This is how Bernabéu wrote it. The Italian lifted one and earned eternal glory and a comeback when the best days of his career seemed to have passed. Lto Champions, in Madrid, forgive or condemn and with it you do not play. So before the Sheriff, Moldovan whim of a former KGB agent and team number 68 in the UEFA ranking, he put those he would have lined up in the final in Saint Petersburg. because there were still embers from the first leg. At the Bernabéu, Kroos and Modric were forgiven for thinking about the future and left one of those defeats that serve UEFA to scourge the Super League in defense, interested, of the romantic diversity offered by their Champions. At Tiraspol Ancelotti was on the safe side. It was convenient to go through and not think about the League, which always offers more opportunities for redemption.

The Sheriff entered the game with the Europa League assured and had an admirable initial behavior, typical of someone who has everything won and nothing lost. This time he put Traoré on the point, who alternates the center and the band. Its supersonic speed is worth one for the other. An essential piece in a team that rules in Moldova and counterattacks in Europe. He warned Madrid with several corners and some balls to the back of the centrals that did not prosper. Nothing relevant, but somewhat off-script. It was not expected that the team that feeds on less ball in the entire Champions League would begin to talk about you to the most laureate in history.

Kroos sentence

That misleading equality was brief. After 20 minutes, Madrid, to the sound of Modric and a fantastic Kroos, had put themselves in their role. He took the first steps for Rodrygo’s band, an extreme less loud than Vinicius but as vertical as he. His was the first shot, rejected Athanaisadis, the Bernabéu paralotodo. The second was also prepared, but Benzema’s header went high. In any case, Madrid is a team that enjoys space and is thick in positional play. What he did not find in his domain was a stroke of luck. Casemiro forced a foul on the edge of the area. Alaba threw it with little grace, to the goalkeeper’s post, but a badly placed barrier and an inopportune foot from Cristiano left Athanasiadis with the mold and Madrid on the way to the eighth.

He hadn’t needed much to see himself there, and he didn’t go too far out of it. The impression remained that it was not worth spending a lot to secure the pass. Even so, it was 0-2 before the break. Mendy reached the baseline and Carvajal volleyed high. A conversation between laterals, who give Madrid a lot of flight when they dare. It has not been frequent in recent times.

Even taking a break, Madrid was already overwhelmingly superior. The miracles of a day (that of the Moldovans in Madrid) do not make one-year projects. On the first half discount Kroos definitely ripped the star off the Sheriff with a super goal, a forehand shot placed to the squad that needed the placet of goal technology to reach the scoreboard.

Alaba’s injury

There it all ended. Madrid, from then on, carpeted their victory in an exaggerated possession of the ball in the opposite field and in making good use of their opportunities. In that dynamic Benzema appeared to hunt a ball on the edge of the area and with little momentum sent the ball to the net. Who would have thought a decade ago that there was a matador that size there.

The 0-3 gave way to politics. The Ukrainian Vernydub changed his three midfielders more to satisfy the substitutes than to give the game an impossible swerve. And Ancelotti, who also has a diplomatic career, put Marcelo in. Mendy had a card and that justified the change. Then Carvajal and Alaba left, this injured. Bad news with consequences. The Sheriff made that new defense three times on the same play to establish the boundary between starters and substitutes.

Ancelotti completed the changes late, seeing the panorama, and this time it was not for Isco to avoid another face of sucking on lemon. But there they followed Kroos and Modric, manifestly dosable. He will need them against Inter, against whom a draw is worth to enter the shark hype.