Real reason that fired up Madrid

Manager Carlo Ancelotti showed his players a special inspirational video before stunning Manchester City 3-1 to set up Champions League final showdown with Liverpool

Karim Benzema scored an extra-time penalty as Real Madrid pulled off another astonishing comeback in the Champions League to stun Manchester City 3-1 on Wednesday and book a showdown with Liverpool in the final. 

City looked certain to go through when Riyad Mahrez put them 1-0 up and 5-3 ahead on aggregate but Rodrygo, on as a substitute, scored an incredible late double, his goals in the 90th and 91st minutes sending the tie to extra time.

With City still reeling, Real Madrid landed the knockout blow as Benzema earned and then converted a spot-kick to snatch a 6-5 win on aggregate, with another remarkable fightback at the Santiago Bernabeu added to the club’s long list of magical European nights.

‘Greatness of the club’

“It’s the greatness of this club,” said Real coach Carlo Ancelotti. “It’s a club that doesn’t allow you to give up even if it seems everything is over. It gives you the strength to keep going, to fight, to believe.” Ancelotti said his players had watched a video before the game, showing eight of Real Madrid’s comebacks this season, for inspiration. “At the end it said ‘There’s one more left’ and we have achieved it,” Ancelotti said, after becoming the first coach to reach five Champions League finals.

Carlo Ancelotti

Madrid had already performed the unlikeliest of rescue acts to defeat both Paris Saint-Germain in the Last-16 and Chelsea in the quarter-finals. Like PSG and Chelsea before them, City will wonder how they emerged as losers from a match they largely controlled and there will be fresh scrutiny on coach Pep Guardiola, who, for all his success, goes another year without leading City to the European glory they so crave.
 
They are a victory against Liverpool away from lifting a 14th European Cup. “Another magic night from the kings of Europe,” read a banner draped over the stand at one end before kick-off but for most of normal time, this match failed to live up to the seven-goal thriller at the Etihad Stadium last week.

Real Madrid were the more assertive early on, with Benzema given a couple of difficult opportunities that he put off target.

Brilliant Benzema

It was the 90th minute when Benzema cushioned a ball brilliantly across for Rodrygo to feather in at the near post and the cheer for the goal was only a little louder than for the stadium announcer then saying there would be six minutes of added time. Madrid only needed one as Carvajal swung a cross into the box, where Rodrygo headed in. When play resumed, Madrid emerged the stronger and four minutes in, they had a penalty, Benzema tumbling over the tired, lunging leg of Ruben Dias.

10
No. of goals scored by Benzema in the Champions League knockout stage this season to be on part with Cristiano Ronaldo (in 2016-17)

1
Rodrygo is the first player to score twice in the 90th minute of a Champions League knockout tie. He scored in the 90th and 91st minute v Man City

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