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The two Spanish teams managed to overcome their qualifiers against Bayern Munich and Chelsea respectively in agonizing games that left one of the best days of the season in the Champions League.
Perfect day for Spanish football. Two of its representatives achieved the long-awaited ticket for the Champions League semifinals. A success that has been agonizing for Real Madrid and Villarreal, who have suffered their pass until the last minutes of their respective qualifiers against Chelsea and Bayern Munich respectively.
The night of European football began with a confident Real Madrid thanks to their positive result in the first leg in London against Chelsea. Carlo Ancelotti’s men seemed to have done the most difficult thing at Stanford Bridge by beating Chelsea 1-3 and having to host the British team at home. But the match was complicated.
Thomas Tuchel’s squad put on a magnificent game at the Santiago Bernabéu, with almost complete control of the game that began to show on the scoreboard in the 14th minute after a move between Timo Werner and Mason Mount that ended with a goal from the latter. A goal that at that time did not affect Madrid, but that began to set off alarms.
Real Madrid felt suffocated by the tactical system that Tuchel imposed on the pitch, much more uncomfortable than in London. The long possessions of the English team and their physical superiority, however, were not reflected in more goals and the match ended 0-1 at the break.
As soon as the second half began, the situation became more difficult for the merengue team. The ‘blue’ defender Rüdiger managed to head the ball after a corner and put the tie in red hot. 0-2 and Chelsea were only one goal away from the semi-finals.
Chelsea was emboldened by the tie and Marcos Alonso managed to make it 0-3, but it was annulled with much controversy by the VAR, leaving it 0-2 again. This woke up Real Madrid, who began to have their typical harmony with the stands and Karim Benzema touched the goal by hitting the crossbar with a header. However, Chelsea soon recovered and regained control of the game.
Timo Werner seemed to kill the game with his goal in the 74th minute. With 0-3, Chelsea were in the semi-finals and Real Madrid was wandering around the pitch dying. But this team, either by luck or by the push of their fans, is difficult to give up until the referee’s final whistle. Chelsea missed the fourth and Modric, out of nowhere, assisted Rodrygo to make it 1-3 with 10 minutes remaining in the game.
The tie was tied and the atmosphere of a comeback at the Bernabéu gained strength. The match went to extra time, and on the first play of this, Karim Benzema managed to finish off an assist from Vinicius Jr. with a header that served to make it 2-3 and put Madrid ahead again in the tie. During the 30 minutes of extra time, Chelsea looked psychologically affected by what had happened and their level dropped considerably. Real Madrid only had to put up with the few onslaughts from Tuchel’s men to, in the end, certify their long-suffering pass to the semi-finals. The tenth semis in 12 years.
Historic day for Villarreal
The other smile of Spanish football occurred at the Allianz Arena in Munich. There, Villarreal managed to draw a long-suffering draw that earned him a pass to the semifinals, the second time he has reached these instances in his entire history.
Unai Emery’s team arrived in Germany after the feat achieved in Villarreal of beating the Bavarian team 1-0, but with the feeling that they could have scored many more goals at home that would have allowed them to have a wider advantage in a field as complicated as that of Bayern. And that can cause fear.
The Mediterranean team managed to maintain an almost perfect approach to maintain the result. They suffered a lot before the onslaught of the German team, but they had clear opportunities to sentence the tie, although without luck. Something that would end up paying once the second part arrived at the Allianz Arena.
In Munich 💛.#UCL
– Villarreal CF (@VillarrealCF) April 12, 2022
Polish striker Robert Lewandowski was in charge of opening the scoring for Bayern after forgiving several scoring chances. The tie was even and there was still the entire second half. Villarreal suffered a lot, but when everything seemed to indicate that the game was going to overtime, a recently released Chukwueze tied the game and decided the tie for Villarreal.
The play was completed in the 88th minute, two from the end. And it is the most purely Emery style. An attack on the counter taking advantage of the fact that Bayern had the majority of their team on the attack that managed to silence the 75,000 people that packed the Allianz and gave Villarreal the pass to the semi-finals for the second time in their history.
Football owed one to this Spanish team that in 2006 was already in another semifinal and that bordered on the feat against Arsene Wegner’s Arsenal by enjoying a penalty in the final minutes that gave them their pass to the final that year but that , however, Juan Román Riquelme failed. And he also owed one to Unai Emery, coach of the yellow submarine, a very successful coach in the Europa League whose luck in the Champions League had always been cut short.
This Wednesday the other two quarter-final ties will be played between Manchester City and Atlético de Madrid and Liverpool against Benfica. Atlético will have to come back from an adverse 1-0 result against Pep Guardiola’s team if they want to become the third Spanish team in the semis, while Liverpool are the favorites to go through against Benfica after beating Lisbon 1-3 in the Going.
#Villarreal #Real #Madrid #Champions #League #semifinalists