Analysis
The Belgian goalkeeper consummated with an anthological performance the last miracle of a Champions League so incredible that even the final started more than half an hour late due to the collapse caused by thousands of Liverpool fans without a ticket
If this Champions League of miracles or of the great competitive and quality lessons of Real Madrid has shown anything, depending on the reflection of the colors with which it is viewed, it is that the king of sports is the most opposed to technology, to reason , common sense and even safety. In times of ‘big data’, heat maps, algorithms and artificial intelligence, everything is monitored and uncertainty in decision-making is minimized, but in the end it is almost always the details that make the difference. To the point that this final was delayed 37 minutes due to serious security problems at the entrances of Liverpool fans, 40,000 of them displaced without tickets.
At the scheduled time, a red tide invaded the outskirts of the stadium. Inside, large holes in the ‘net’ area. An organizational disaster, a serious inconvenience for professionals and one more example that almost nothing is controllable in football. Shameful of the attitude of the English for their avalanche attempts, surpassed the French police and the security of the stadium and once again questioned the UEFA chaired by the Slovenian Aleksander Ceferin. Very eventful this edition of the biggest football club competition, in solfa since that round of 16 draw that had to be repeated due to a mess with the balls. It is also incredible that the Liverpool bus got stuck on the way to the Stade de France and that the grass, planted last fall in Olot (Girona), was installed in the Parisian stadium between Tuesday and Wednesday. As Jürgen Klopp complained the day before, grass is somewhat uneven, not the best for a fast game.
Modernity serves to conclude whether a signing or a loss is convenient, choose a type eleven, design training sessions, tactics and strategies, and even generate endless news based on boring data journalism, but the designs of football, and what around him, they remain inscrutable. In the same way that the VAR is a huge help for the referees and avoids historical scandals, but in the end the resolutions are at the expense of the interpretation of each judge. Karim Benzema’s disallowed goal was found to be offside just before the break, despite the fact that the ball came from Fabinho, an opponent. Interference? Rebound? Nobody understands anything.
There is no machine, program or system, in short, capable of predicting the milestones crowned by Carlo Ancelotti’s team against PSG, Chelsea and Manchester City. If the hackneyed percentages of possession already clash over and over again with the results and sharpen the differences in styles between the coaches, what about those absurd numbers that consider a shot on goal a pass to the goalkeeper’s hands and, instead, not they record an obvious chance because the ball goes out. If he were still among us, the wise Luis Aragonés would continue to raise his hands to his head every time there was talk of assists, in the purest basketball style, and not goal passes. Or static attacks. A pure contradiction.
the reflection of the soul
Soccer is so unpredictable, and therefore so great, that it struggles with the laws of logic. If it were for the cold numbers, Madrid would have been beaten in the round of 16 by Kylian Mbappé’s PSG. But the power of the mind prevailed, the gigantic figure of Courtois, the colossal punch of Benzema, the shit of the opponents when seeing the goal close at the Bernabéu and, why deny it, the well-watered flower of Ancelotti. So until the great event in Paris, the most repeated final in history. A duel between two old-fashioned clubs far from sheikhs and emirs, two teams united by their mystique and the fetishism of the European Cup.
In the previous one, Carlo Ancelotti’s smile was the reflection of the soul; his voice, that of experience. Klopp, on the other hand, reflected tension. Carletto took a nap for an hour, but his team arrived at the Stade de France earlier. The ‘red’ army was delayed, a victim of improvisation and Parisian traffic. In the warm-up, Thiago did not feel well, but he took the risk of playing. After a long half hour of uncertainty due to the anger outside, hostilities finally broke out. The ‘reds’ impose a breakneck pace, but Courtois supports Madrid. He avoids two shots from Salah and Mané with a goal mark. The Belgian, first key. The Spanish champion wants more calm, more control, a long game. On his first arrival, Benzema scored after a defensive error, but the goal did not go up on the scoreboard. Second decisive moment of the final. The third, a quarter of an hour into the second half. Valverde’s shot becomes a center and Vinicius does not forgive. It was the second approach of Madrid. It was time to resist. Thibaut moment, happy “on the good side of history”. “The rivals know that when Madrid reaches a final, they win it.” There are already eight finals played and won since the seventh. The Fourteenth did have its logic, that of Real Madrid.
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