“We have to tell the truth,” Toni Kroos said, and the truth hurt. There was no escaping it, not this time. “This defeat was very, very deserved,” the midfielder admitted when at last it was over, which by then was all Real Madrid could aspire to. The night before the Champions League semi-final second leg, Carlo Ancelotti had gathered his players at the Etihad Stadium and told them there would be moments when they would have to hang on: 20 minutes, 25, maybe 30. It is their way, and Manchester City had made them suffer before, after all. Just not quite like this. Even half an hour turned out to be hopelessly optimistic.
That mark had just been passed when Kroos crashed a shot against the bar. It was Real Madrid’s first, and the first time they had anything resembling possession. In the opening quarter of an hour they had averaged less than a pass a minute and it hadn’t got much better. City had taken nine shots, and if they led only 1-0 it was because Thibaut Courtois had made two extraordinary saves. And yet in that moment, as the goal shook, you couldn’t help wondering whether Madrid were going to go and do it again. Two minutes later, Bernardo Silva made it 2-0. That’ll be a no, then.
Asked whether that shot might have changed things, Kroos conceded that it could have been a “different game” but preferred a broader analysis where the conclusions were clear. Half an hour? This was the whole night; City never loosened their grip, never allowed room for another miracle, and Madrid never found a way of wresting control, Julián Álvarez scoring the fourth in the 91st minute. The champions were out. No what ifs, just logic applied. “City were superior,” Luka Modric said; “better from start to finish,” Dani Carvajal agreed.
It’s football, it can happen, Ancelotti said, insisting there was no need to make a drama of defeat and responding sharply to suggestions that Madrid’s attitude had been off. But he is under no illusions as to where he is – indeed, it has been part of his success – and is aware that defeat brings consequences, and knew he would be pressed about his future. He has been interrogated about it in each of the 100-plus press conferences this season; how could he not be now, after the game the entire season built towards, the match they kept saying would define his future?
Ancelotti, constantly reminded of a supposed “unwritten rule” that says if you don’t win the Champions League you get sacked, was asked whether he could understand the club having doubts about him continuing. “No one doubts: the president was clear a fortnight ago,” he replied. Back then, after Madrid had won the Copa del Rey and after months of speculation, Florentino Pérez said he did not want to hear any more about Ancelotti’s future: he had a contract until 2024 and that was that.
And yet referring the question back to the president was deliberate, another hand played in a complex situation in which club and coach have worked themselves into an awkward stalemate that does not truly suit either party. Ancelotti would like to become Brazil manager, and suspects Madrid would like him to as well, conscious that belief in him is not unwavering. The sack, at one point anticipated, would not be entirely unwelcome to him; resignation would not be entirely unwelcome to them. But neither side want responsibility, so time and opportunities pass with both sides talking of continuity, if not with a huge amount of conviction.
Madrid’s director of institutional relations, Emilio Butragueño, on Wednesday night called Ancelotti a “stupendous” coach, who “has a contract”, but stopped short of a guarantee that he does not have the authority to give, and the doubts are certainly there.
Madrid have relinquished the league early, 14 points behind Barcelona, and this defeat was not so out of place with what happened last week or even last season, not such a dramatic collapse. That gets revisited now, a feeling that maybe this was due, bound to happen at some point.
Last night Courtois talked about small things falling Madrid’s way last season and not this, while Pep Guardiola pointedly recalled how Kroos admitted that Madrid could have lost 10-1 in the first leg at the Etihad a year ago. As for the second leg, well, that remained hard to believe and still hurt: City’s coach talked about the pain his team had carried, a desire for justice driving them. Nor had it been just the City games last year: in the Parc des Princes, PSG had racked up 22 shots to three, then another 21 at the Bernabéu. Even at Stamford Bridge, Madrid’s best away performance, Chelsea had taken 20. Thomas Tuchel’s team then had 29 at the Bernabéu. City managed more than 30 across the two legs. And in the final, Liverpool took 23 to Madrid’s three, 9-1 on target.
At times it defied analysis, the talk naturally of mystique and miracles, yet there was also a patience, a capacity for resistance.They may not be a systems team but Madrid do many things well, and one of them is to wait. “There will be times when you have to accept that your opponent is better,” Kroos said, expressing a kind of humility to go alongside the supreme confidence that their moments would come and they had the quality and character to grab them.
For as long as they found a way, fine. But this time they didn’t. This time there was no way back, City’s pressure suffocating them. This time some looked their age, or at least that became an inevitable theme in the wake of the 4-0, endlessly repeated last night: Luka Modric is 37, Karim Benzema 35, Kroos 33, Dani Carvajal 31. The talk now is of transition, a new generation and some of the talent is there: Eduardo Camavinga is 20, Vinícius Júnior and Rodrygo are 22, Aurélien Tchouaméni is 23, Federico Valverde 24, Éder Militão 25. They are confident of signing Jude Bellingham, who is 19. Kylian Mbappé, of course, did not come, when they thought he would.
That evolution was already under way, which is not to say it is easy. Ancelotti says he has asked for “patience” from his young players and “understanding” from his older ones as opportunities are shared. Of 34 league games this campaign, Kroos has started 22, Modric 17 and Benzema 21, although the Frenchman has had injuries, far from last season’s form. Even in last season’s Champions League, Camavinga was introduced in each of the second legs, decisive every time, and Valverde’s hybrid role brought energy to midfield. By the end of the City game, Casemiro, Kroos and Modric had been withdrawn.
They were back for the final, which Madrid won. Back again this season, too, and deservedly. Now Madrid had reached a semi-final, an 11th in 13 years, in a season in which they scored six against Liverpool, four against Chelsea. Defeat tends to accelerate everything, especially one like this, so devastating, so definitive. Vinícius insisted “this can’t happen next year”. And the temptation is to tear it all up. But that is their truth too. Just as it is true that the City team who were better than them at the Etihad Stadium are better than everyone else there too, scoring seven against Leipzig, six against Manchester United, four against Liverpool and Arsenal, three against Bayern.
“We have to assimilate this loss first and then we’ll see. I don’t want to get into more depth now,” Modric said. “When Real Madrid lose, everything is made very big: lots of analysis, lots of criticism. We’re used to it, it won’t sink us. This team still has much to give.”
Kroos said: “I can’t say that we had a bad Champions League campaign: we’ve played many good games and we were just one game away from the final. As a coach or a player you sign for this club and you know they expect the maximum.
“Fortunately, we have often done the maximum, but nor is it normal to win the Champions League all the time. Lots of teams would swap with us. I don’t need defeat to appreciate what we did; I always knew that what we did was madness. The last time I heard it was the end of an era was 2019 – that’s a long time ago. So, we’re OK.”
