These are Real Madrid’s principles, and if you don’t like them … well, they have others. Here Bayern Munich forced Carlo Ancelotti’s side to play not one game but several: an early defensive rearguard, a gradual arm-wrestle for control, a chaotic period at the start of the second half and finally a late quickening as they chased down the lead wrought so spectacularly by Leroy Sané and Harry Kane.
That they are still standing, perhaps even marginal favourites in this semi-final, is a testament to the speed and agility with which they manage to find solutions, to sense the little fissures and shifts in energy before they even happen, to smell the goal before it has even been conceived. And of course it helps when you have a forward of the relentless, remorseless, red-blooded quality of Vinícius Júnior, who added a cool late penalty to his sumptuous first-half goal.
