With four minutes to go they were losing 2-1 away to the team their manager admitted they had wanted to avoid; when the final whistle went, they were 3-2 up, the winner scored in the 92nd minute, Jude Bellingham standing there, arms wide before them all. “This,” Brahim Díaz said, “is Real Madrid.” And Real Madrid gonna be Real Madrid. Just another night in the European Cup, the never ending story, comebacks as standard. This match had become a clásico, Carlo Ancelotti had said, and it had a classic ending. Seen this one before.
Only, have you? This wasn’t the same, not this time: it wasn’t the same as all those other seasons, the recurring remontadas, the realm of miracles, and it wasn’t the same as what we have been watching for the past six months either. Manchester City and Real Madrid have met in four of the past five years in the Champions League. In three of those four times, the team that got through won the competition. This time, they met in the playoff round, punishment for how bad they had been in the league phase, 11th and 21st in Europe; it was harder to imagine the same outcome this season.
