De Bruyne scored a stunning strike as City recovered from 1-0 down but Carlo Ancelotti was convinced that the ball had gone out of play in the build-up
These are surely the two best teams in Europe when at peak performance, and it shows. The attacking dashes were played at double speed, the passing out from the back, a whir of passing triangles to make Pythagoras a little hot under the collar, was the surest signifier of the newest football age.
The control and one-touch distribution under pressure is another world from mid-noughties football. Whatever happened on Tuesday and may happen next week, both sides are worthy of our highest acclaim and anyone in the Bernabeu should consider themselves fortunate. It is trite to call these special nights; you know as much by now. They began to assemble on Avenida de Concha Espina three hours before kick off, and within an hour they were a mass of white shirts and loud voices. When, 90 minutes before Real Madrid began yet another European Cup semi-final, the team coach pulled into view and began to roll down the hill, it was flanked by police horses who desperately tried to hold back the rush.
It was a flawless evening for football. The atmosphere was intense, supercharged by the pre-match street party. The hot sun had faded into late spring dusk, its rays spearing through the lattice framework of the Bernabeu’s building work. The concrete exoskeleton has been replaced by silver horizontal slats, as if a spaceship has landed in Chamartin. The aliens made a solid choice; you wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else in the sporting world.
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