Ritam Dey at Santiago Bernabeu
‘Nuestro Corona, Nuestro Copa’ is what the Madrid faithful ‘Merengues’ put on display at the start of the game and true to the name, in vintage Real Madrid fashion, Carlo Ancelotti’s ‘hungry’ men crushed the hopes of an injury-ridden Borussia Dortmund squad, waking up late to the party.
Covering the game from the press tribune for the first time, Bernabeu did not disappoint me. Neither did the travelling ‘Yellow Wall’. In fact, nothing matched the loudness the travelling fans brought with, almost overpowering a filled Bernabeu of Madridistas.
Nuri Sahin began the match with their star forward Adeyemi out injured, along with some other important names like Giovanni Reyna and Couto. So as predicted, Dortmund began the match riding the tides of Madrid attack only to capitalise on the opposition’s lapses in concentration. Serhou Guirassy is what a modern day athletic and matured forward looks like, the ceiling for him is incredibly high. Guirassy provided the assist and the Dutch winger Malen scored the opening goal of the night, followed by a second by Gittens minutes after. 0-2 at half-time and life seemed easy for Nuri Sahin. But what followed can only be termed as ‘Simply Real Madrid’.
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Just as in every miraculous turnaround, Ancelotti’s powerhouses would wake up late in the match. The game which was turning out to be a frustrating watch for the home fans, suddenly became a slaughterhouse of the opposition. On 59 minutes, the scoreline read 0-2 and in the 61st minute, Madrid were level, 2-2 courtesy Rudiger’s header and Vinicius Jr’s first. Dortmund tried their best to calm things down with experienced men like Emre Can and Pascal Gross coming on but that lasted hardly for 15 more minutes. Once the timer reached the 80th minute mark, there seemed to be an invisible gear in Ancelotti’s hands switching the tempo to the optimum, and Vazquez scored in the 83rd minute.
The match after that point could well be stated as Vinicius’ march towards the Balon D’or. A hat-trick in the second-half after an almost dormant first, in quite a scintillating fashion, earning the matchball which felt inevitable every time he received the long diagonals sprayed on the left wing, wrapping up another one in the long list of Real Madrid fairytale comebacks in the blink of an eye.
The Dortmund faithful, however, did prove why they are famous. Even after such a disappointment they remained loud and proud, competing toe-to-toe with a houseful of Madrid stans till the last minute. The Merengues displayed ‘organised chaos’, with tifos, flags and banners. As someone hearing the ‘Hala Madrid y Nada mas’ anthem for the first time live in Bernabeu, I can confirm the air inside the closed roofs smelt and breathed royalty.