Real Madrid 2 – 2 Bayern Munich: match recap from the Champions League
By Alex McVey
Second Half
If the first half was Bayern’s dream start, the second half was their nightmare. Just minutes into the second half, Madrid put in a rather pedestrian press up the pitch, forcing Alaba to pass back to Ulreich. Ulreich first thought that the back-pass came off a Madrid player and looked to scoop it up with his hands, seemed to realize his mistake almost instantly, and let the ball trickle past him. Benzema, keen on the mistake, received the most generous gift of his life, and tapped the ball into an open net.
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The goal seemed to buoy Madrid’s confidence for the first part of the second half, as Madrid enjoyed their best share of possession and momentarily looked sharp in attack and organized in defense. Bayern’s attack started to look deflated, and it almost seemed as if hope was draining away.
But the class and determination of the Bavarians started to show through, and Bayern remembered their blueprint for dismantling Madrid in the first half. Bayern began tormenting Madrid’s back half with dangerous runs down the flank testing both Vazquez and Marcelo on either side. Bayern took a strong shot in the middle, which was parried out to James. James slotted away at the near post just past Keylor Navas, and then refused to celebrate his goal. It was a class act, but it sent Madrid into a moment of total chaos.
From that moment on Bayern knew they needed just one more goal to send them through with no extra time on away goals. Bayern pushed forward intensely searching for the go-ahead goal. At this point, Madrid were marshaling every last bit of energy they could in defending their aggregate lead. Bale came on for Benzema, and Casemiro came on for Kovacic, probably in an effort to add a bit of two-way defensive action.
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Bayern huffed, and puffed, but consistently found themselves unable to get past the brick wall of Keylor Navas. The Costa Rican keeper was absolutely unstoppable against Bayern. Even considering Benzema’s goals, Navas was the undisputed man of the match. Had Bayern not made save after save, Madrid would have been completely hopeless. Big credit to Ronaldo who also put in a major defensive shift in the second half, winning the ball in midfield a number of times to relieve the pressure on Madrid’s midfield.
With that, Real Madrid came away with a 4-3 aggregate lead, and now find themselves in their third consecutive Champions League final, looking for their third consecutive Champions League title.