Of course, they say that it all comes down to eleven players versus eleven, and in one extremely obvious sense it does. But by the time you reach the semi-finals of the Champions League, it’s more than that. It’s one institution against another. For the rest of us, peering up at this distant summit, it’s all a matter of who’s a little further away at any given time.
By Ian King
Before last night’s semi-final match, when asked what it would take for Real Madrid to reach the final, Carlo Ancelotti replied, “Brain and heart”. Don Carlo. As economical with his words as he is luxurious with his tailoring habits. Such is their aura that it can be easy to persuade yourself that Real Madrid winning this tournament is inevitable, but it’s not like that any more. They’ve only won it once in the last five years. Once you’re in the closed shop, things get competitive.
Bayern Munich arrived for this game at a definite crossroads. From out of nowhere, Bayer Leverkusen have ended their 11-year run as the champions of Germany. From somewhere even more surprising – and ‘Neverkusen’ running a marathon at the speed of Usain Bolt on all fronts this season has been pretty surprising – third tier Saarbrücken knocked them out of the DFB Pokal in the Second Round.
It was inevitable, therefore, that Thomas Tuchel’s job was dependent on winning this fixture. Were Bayern Munich to win, the Champions League – all they have left – would still be possible. Lose and their season would be very suddenly and very definitely over. As, most likely, would be Tuchel’s time at the Allianz Arena.
Small wonder Bayern were cautious for much of the first half, deeply encamped in their own half as Real Madrid waited for a gap to exploit. The quality of players on the pitch ensured that there were a few chances. Manuel Neuer pulled off a string of outstanding saves, including one double-save from Vinícius Júnior and Rodrygo which proved beyond reasonable doubt that they simply make adults younger, these days.
Tuchel wasn’t the only member of the Bayern party with something to prove. Harry Kane went to Munich to win trophies and, well, that hadn’t been going so great. He can hardly be held responsible for this. Going into this match, he’d scored 36 in 32 in the Bundesliga this season and 44 in 45 in all competitions. He’s done his bit.
And when Bayern did attack, he was the main conduit of their best attacking play. After six minutes, he almost got his toe on the end of a low cross sent skidding across the box by Serge Gnabry. Later in the half, his low shot had to be tipped round the post by Andriy Lunin. But it was an injury that would indirectly cause the first major shift in the balance of the evening, when Gnabry twanged a hamstring and had to be replaced by Alphonso Davies.
Davies had never scored a Champions League goal before, but he more than made up for that almost exactly midway through the second half. Kane, if anything, was the provider, moving the ball down the left-hand channel for Davies, who cut in and fired an unstoppable rising shot past Lunin. It looked like a classic smash and grab, all the more so when Real had an equalising goal disallowed after Nacho shoved Mats Hummels over as the ball was deflected in off Matthijs de Ligt.
But when you’re playing Real Madrid, you’re not just playing eleven players. You’re playing the institution, the crushing weight of their history, the howling, baying crowd. And when things start to turn, they can turn very quickly.
With five minutes to play, Tuchel withdrew Kane and shifted to a more defensive position. Two minutes later, substitute Mato Joselu, who’d only been on the pitch for five minutes himself, scored after Neuer, so previously brilliant, spilled a harmless looking shot into his path. Three minutes later, after being incorrectly ruled out for offside, Joselu scored again, this time from close range.
With more than ten minutes of stoppage-time to play, Thomas Tuchel could have done with a striker like Harry Kane, but that was the one player definitely not at his disposal, and in addition to that his team had also switched to a more defensive formation.
Whether bad luck or bad judgement on Tuchel’s part, even this was almost overshadowed 13 minutes(!) into stoppage-time, when the ball was hooked into the goal by De Ligt, only to be ruled out for an offside that was flagged and whistled strangely early. It may well have been that the player in question, Noussair Mazraoui, was offside, but it seemed strange that there was such reticence to forensically review the decision.
And in those chaotic final few minutes, Thomas Tuchel’s position at Bayern Munich surely came to its end. As for much of this season, Harry Kane did what he could, but it wasn’t quite enough. If there is a Curse of Kane, it’s a curse that happens to him rather than one that he causes. If there was a curse on anybody in Madrid last night, it was on Manuel Neuer, for allowing a poltergeist to occupy his gloves with three minutes to play, and on Thomas Tuchel, who couldn’t overcome the weight of history that came crashing down on upon both him and his team in the Bernabéu.
(Images from IMAGO)
You can follow the Champions League Final live with FotMob — featuring deep stats coverage, xG, and player ratings. Download the free app here.