2023-05-17 00:40:25
Paraphrasing the quote by Martín Fierro that Alfredo Di Stéfano used to allude to, Real Madrid will need to be a thug in another’s rodeo this Wednesday to be at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium on June 10. After drawing 1-1 with Manchester City at the Santiago Bernabéu last week, the whites are forced to storm the Etihad Stadium for the first time in order to play what would be their eighteenth final in the top continental competition.
Keeping inviolate the enclosure that they have turned into a practically impregnable fortress is, on the contrary, the purpose of the ‘skyblues’, who after increasing the distance that separates them from Arsenal to four points in the titanic fight they maintain to revalidate the title of the Premier League, they aspire to certify their second presence in the decisive duel for the ‘orejona’ and settle accounts with the current European champion for the painful elimination of the previous year. The Battle of Britain will open the gates of Istanbul.
The Chamartín team has passed 16 of the 25 qualifiers for the star club tournament in which they signed a draw in the first leg, a success rate of 64% that rises to 80% if only the editions that have elapsed since are taken into account. that the current Champions League format was implemented (8 of 10). However, the survival percentage plummeted when the whites had to face the return away from the Santiago Bernabéu: they were barely able to lift two of the ten crossings with such a set of clashes.
The good news for the fourteen-time king of the Old Continent is that these two triumphant exceptions were registered in Manchester: in the 1999-2000 season, on his way to his eighth, he won Old Trafford 2-3 after a goalless draw at the Paseo de la Castellana, and in 2012-13 returned to surrender the temple of the ‘red devils’ (1-2), after equalizing one at the Bernabéu.
Adhering exclusively to the precedents in the run-up to the final of the old European Cup, Real Madrid also has elements to hold onto to be optimistic in their desire to claim the fifteenth continental crown. The whites tied or lost the first leg on 14 of the 31 occasions in which they stepped on the penultimate step of their fetish competition and only surpassed two of those semifinals, but on both occasions the victim was City. It happened last season, when they came back from 4-3 at the Bernabéu (3-1) that reflected the score at the Etihad, and it also happened at 15-16, when the troops led by Zinedine Zidane sealed the ticket for Milan, equalizing without goals in Manchester and then prevailing by the minimum in the capital of Spain.
That there are no two without three is the objective of the block led by Carlo Ancelotti. The Italian, who will leave Sir Alex Ferguson behind in the Mancunian arena as the coach with the most games directed in the Champions League, has all his centurions in perfect condition and could reissue the eleven that neutralized the ‘citizens’ eight days ago at the Bernabéu, opting again for Rüdiger as Haaland’s secant, despite the return of Militao.
A wall
Releasing the Norwegian predator from the house arrest that the German center-back imposed on him in that match is one of Pep Guardiola’s purposes in the face of a challenge to which City arrives full of morale, after a weekend that left him caressing the La Liga trophy. Premier. While Arsenal succumbed to the hands of Brighton, the ‘skyblues’ subjugated Everton with a double from Gündogan and Haaland’s fifty-second goal of the season, who after running out of gunpowder in the Chamartín Coliseum points his cannons at the Etihad.
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Guardiola, who oxygenated Bernardo Silva and Grealish from the start against the ‘toffees’ and did not even take Stones and De Bruyne out of the reserve at Goodison Park, will once again make up his eleven for a confrontation in which Manchester City will try to assert their devastating numbers at home. The light blues have won 26 of the 28 games they have played so far this season at the Etihad, where they average 3.39 goals scored, and their last defeat there in the Champions League dates back to the 2018-19 academic year, when they gave up in the group stage against Olympique de Lyon.
Since then, the venue located on Rowsley Street has hosted 25 matches in the top continental competition in which only Shakhtar Donetsk and Sporting de Portugal have managed to come out unscathed. That is the wall that a Real Madrid that has collected two defeats and as many draws in its four previous visits will have to break down. Difficult but not impossible for a team accustomed to turning the unusual into the ordinary. You have to do it again.
-Probable alignments:
Manchester City: Ederson, Walker, Ruben Dias, Akanji, Stones, Rodri, Bernardo Silva, De Bruyne, Gundogan, Grealish and Haaland.
Real Madrid: Courtois, Carvajal, Rüdiger, Alaba, Camavinga, Kroos, Valverde, Modric, Rodrygo, Benzema and Vinicius.
Arbitro: Szymon Marciniak (Polonia).
Time: 9:00 p.m.
Estadio: Etihad Stadium.
TV: Movistar Champions League.
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