The ball was there to hit and how Kevin De Bruyne hit it. It was midway through the second half, Manchester City were behind to Vinícius Júnior’s sumptuous 36th-minute blast and the feeling was starting to take hold that Real Madrid had this Champions League semi-final, first leg under control.
For City, the demons circled at the venue where it had gone so horribly wrong in the second leg of last season’s semi-final; the collapse at the end of normal time, two goals shipped after the 90th minute, then Madrid’s extra-time winner.
De Bruyne cut through it all when he sliced through the ball from 25 yards out, centrally placed after Ilkay Gündogan’s lay-off and, boy, did it fizz. It was always likely to take something special to beat Thibaut Courtois. This was it. Whatever Vinícius could do, so could De Bruyne.
Nothing would be settled here, everybody knew that. But at full-time, it was difficult to ignore the impression that City were the happier with the draw ahead of next Wednesday’s second leg. Is the Holy Grail edging nearer? Karim Benzema and Aurélien Tchouaméni would extend Ederson towards the end – the latter with yet another vicious drive – but they could not find a winner.
Pep Guardiola had avoided any public acknowledgement of the impact of the tie here last season but it was not to say that his mind was free of it. Or that he had not addressed the subject in private with his players. It was plainly a part of it, Rodri admitting on Monday that he was driven to avenge the heartbreak.
It felt like the ultimate psychological test, Madrid bringing the usual sense of theatre, too. No club does these kind of nights quite like them, certainly in terms of grandness, the projection of who they are, the self-assurance. There had been typical understatement in the giant pre-match tifo. “El Rey y Su Copa” read the lettering on either side of an image of a viking royal, his hands on the European Cup; the number 14 prominent. “The king and his cup.”
City wanted to hog possession and dictate the tempo, to pen Madrid back, and Guardiola had to be pleased at how his team settled, all easy confidence on the ball, probing this way and that, establishing their passing rhythms.
It felt as if Madrid were happy enough with the arrangement, Carlo Ancelotti believing that his team could sting on the counterattack. What was noticeable at the outset was how little pressure Madrid put on the ball. City were able to play and they had sightings of goal in the first 16 minutes. Courtois was forced to make four saves, albeit none that overly stretched him.
The best was a push-around-the-post to keep out a low Rodri drive on 14 minutes. Erling Haaland’s opening moments later was the clearest, De Bruyne ushering him up the inside left. The angle was not favourable. Haaland dragged straight at Courtois. He would also thump a header at the goalkeeper. De Bruyne had been the first City player to test him.
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Madrid waited. They processed the City patterns and they wondered how their opponents were going to get into the areas to really hurt them. Madrid felt their way into the first half, coming to flicker. Rodrygo overhit a pass up the channel for Benzema’s run; Vinícius’s dangerous cross was cleared by Rúben Dias; Benzema almost wriggled free onto a Federico Valverde ball.
The breakthrough was a mixture of beauty and brutality, the former provided by Luka Modric’s outside-of-the-boot return flick to Eduardo Camavinga deep on the Madrid left, which got the latter moving. When he found Vinícius, the forward allowed the ball to run under his studs, taking Gündogan out of the action, moving from left to right, centrally placed.
Vinícius’s body shape was perfect, so was his awareness of what was around him. Now came the power. The shot from the edge of the box was aimed towards Ederson’s right-hand post and it positively ripped past him.
City felt a bit of rough stuff before the interval, Dani Carvajal barging Jack Grealish into the advertising boards; Toni Kroos booked for a bad tackle on Gündogan. Grealish reacted to Carvajal, pushing a hand up at him to draw a shameful over-reaction from the full-back. The referee, Artur Dias, did not buy it.
City had to keep their composure because the tie was exactly where Madrid wanted it. Balance was key for Guardiola. He dared not overcommit in the second half because Madrid’s threat on the break was clear. Vinícius shimmered with menace.
What did City have? Haaland almost got away on to a Gündogan pass in the 56th minute only for David Alaba to move across and make a fine block tackle. Antonio Rüdiger celebrated it like a goal. City could not take their eyes off Benzema, who had gone close after the restart and, with the second half at its midway point, Madrid had a swagger in their step.
But back came City, back came De Bruyne. The equaliser was sparked when Rodri stepped up to intercept Camavinga’s risky pass out of defence, intended for Rodrygo and, when City worked it for De Bruyne, his blast rocked the Bernabéu.
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