Spanish media heaped praise on Real Madrid after the LaLiga winners pulled off a remarkable comeback win against Manchester City on Wednesday to advance to the Champions League final.
Leading 1-0 with minutes to go, City seemed to be heading for Paris before a late Rodrygo double and an extra-time penalty from Karim Benzema gave the hosts an unlikely 3-1 win on the night and secured a 6-5 victory on aggregate.
It was the third consecutive time in this season’s Champions League knock-out stage that Real had come from behind to win.
“Real Madrid are out of this world,” Madrid-based AS said in their headline, accompanied by a picture of the squad celebrating in front of a section of the home crowd.
Sport newspaper simply went with “Incredible” after Real once again turned around a first-leg deficit following their last-16 win against Paris St. Germain earlier in the competition.
Marca hailed it as the “greatest night in the history of the Bernabeu”.
“If PSG was already inexplicable, if Chelsea was already incredible, last night in Chamartin was, simply, the best night of a stadium that has seen this team in all colours and that is a lot to say,” read their lead story.
Former Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon said UEFA should gave the club a special trophy to recognise their comeback efforts in making it to yet another Champions League final, their 17th including the old European Cup.
“I think UEFA should give us a special trophy already for what we achieved in these three ties. It’s something amazing. I don’t think it has happened before ever. So please UEFA take that into consideration,” he said.
On the streets of Madrid, discussion of the match was still rife on Thursday.
“You never lose hope when it comes to Real Madrid,” said fan Maria Jose Gomez. “I was changing channels every five seconds so as not to die of fright. On top of that I could hear the roar of the stadium from home and I live two kilometres away from it.”
Real will take on Liverpool in a rematch of the 2018 Champions League final at the Stade de France on May 28.
