Arabian Nights.- The Bernabéu and the European Cup go hand in hand. They have written their history hand in hand. There have been many European nights in which the sanctuary of La Castellana has experienced emotions difficult to describe with the keys of a computer. Only those of us who have lived it in its wise stands can explain it without being able to avoid getting goose bumps. The good thing is that when the Champions League anthem sounds and Madrid plays in front of their people, something good always happens to throw you in your mouth. Even in those days when the team works on impulse, without any consistency, with a lack of emotional ardor that despairs a hobby used to vibrating with football at the gallop of the great continental evenings. And even so, Madrid has made history on this November 3, 2021. It will always be remembered as the afternoon-night in which Karim Benzema inscribed his name and surname in gold letters in the Real Madrid Book of Honor. His goal 1,000 and 1,001 will forever bear his signature. Poetic justice with the Frenchman, who will turn 34 in December but who plays with the illusion of a youth squad and the physique of a twenty-something. The cat, as Mourinho contemptuously called him, has become a lion and from this 3-N to a hawk. Exactly to the Millennium Falcon, the name of that wonderfully imperfect ship that Han Solo piloted in the unforgettable Star Wars. But beware. Han Solo achieved his two goals for the newspaper library thanks to the collaboration of ‘Luke Skywalker’ Vinicius, who drew two wonderful assists to elevate his ‘older brother’. The 2-1 is a porcelain choral play to be exhibited in the quarry clinics. Karim & Vini, an unlimited partnership.
Historic club.- Let no one forget that Madrid is the first club capable of reaching 1,000 goals in the European Cup, taking several leagues out of Bayern and Barça, its distant pursuers. But also Madrid is the Best Club of the 20th Century, the Most Valuable Club in Europe (according to the KPMG report), the most valuable football brand in the World (according to Grand Finance), the entity with the highest record in the Transparency index of Soccer Clubs, Award for the Best Sports Institution at the last New York Summit Gala, the club with the largest number of followers in the world on Social Networks (more than 350 million users) and the Best Club of the 21st Century according to the Dubai Globe Soccer Awards. As my countryman José Mota would say, I’m not telling you to get over it, but if you dare, empathize with me …
The fissures.- I say all this to assess how the whistles of the Bernabéu deserve, accustomed to all the caviar that I have previously reviewed. The almost 40,000 fans who colored the stands in the capital’s autumn afternoon were not going to settle for the 1,000 and 1,001 goals. That’s fine for the AS covers (wonderful, by the way, the one from the previous match), but against Shakhtar the fans logically wanted more spectacle and more goals. But the Ukrainian-Brazilians are very dangerous at the top and showed the seams of a defense exhibiting worrying cracks. Carvajal is far from his set-up, although he goes further, Militao alternates imperial cuts ‘a la Pepe’ with strange dissidences such as that of Fernando’s 1-1 goal, and Alaba proves to be more libero than central. You have to go through workshops.
It goes for them. The victory of the night of the 1,000 goals goes to Marino de Honrubia, who won the battle against COVID, and Javier Muñoz, a great film scriptwriter, a great book writer and a leading Madridista. You are gone forever, friend, but I will never forget your legacy.
#Millennium #night
