By Max Tijero, Year 12
On the 4th of May 2022, the football world was treated to arguably one of the greatest comebacks in the history of the Champions League. During the semi-finals of the 2021-2022 UCL, Real Madrid were facing Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City for a spot in the finals against Liverpool.
The first leg was an end to end match with brilliant talent on display. Benzema proved that he was the best player in the world by scoring a brilliant volley and a panenka from the penalty spot. Vinicius Jr. also scored a magnificent goal carrying the ball from the halfway line all the way to the goal. However, these efforts were not enough to achieve victory at the Etihad Stadium. City won the game 4-3 with goals from De bruyne, Gabriel Jesus, Foden and Bernardo Silva.
However, after this match, the feeling that City had won the game was not there, since the second leg was in the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, Real Madrid’s stadium.
Pep Guardiola is a major enemy of the Madrid side and he was not welcomed nicely. Since he had been the coach of Barcelona, Real Madrid’s rivals, he was hated by the Madridistas.
This match was relatively quiet for the first 70 minutes, with apart from a few Thibaut Courtois saves, not much action. Understandably, the coaches turned to the bench in hope of a goal. Rodrygo was subbed in instead of Kroos, Asensio was subbed on for Casemiro, and Camavinga in for Modric. Real Madrid’s historical midfield trio was on the bench for the most important minutes of the season.
In the 73rd minute, Silva passed the ball to the right wing for Riyad Mahrez to smash it into the near post. An unsaveable shot. This goal set City up for success and it seemed impossible that they would lose, especially since they were dominating the match.
Despite this goal, City kept attacking and had some incredible actions that didn’t end up going in. Grealish dribbled Courtois to pass the ball into the net but Ferland Mendy managed to clear the ball in the last breath. 1 minute later, Grealish was back at it, and a shot that seemed to be going in was tapped by Thibaut Courtois’ foot to keep it out. This was possibly one of the greatest saves in the history of the Champions League.
In the 90th minute, it seemed impossible that Real Madrid could do anything, but in a moment of magic, Benzema cut a cross back to Rodrygo, who scored a goal to give the fans hope. And one minute later, a brilliant cross from Carvajal stopped time, and something impossible happened. Rodrygo jumped in the box and headed the ball into the top corner, completing an unimaginable comeback, sending the game to extra time. After getting dominated the entire game, Real Madrid proved their greatness.
During extra time, Benzema earned a penalty. He took the responsibility and after sending Ederson the wrong way, he slotted the ball in, putting Real Madrid ahead in the aggregate score for the first time in the series. Real Madrid were solid for the remainder of extra time, and maintained the score to win the tie. Real Madrid went through to the finals, after being ahead in the aggregate score for just 15 minutes in the entire series compared to City who were ahead for almost 200 minutes.
On this day, Real Madrid completed the impossible.
