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A crazy quarter-final between Real Madrid and BVB ends 3-2. Courtois gifts the semifinal and PSG to Xabi Alonso, after a chaotic recovery.

The words of Yildiz and Locatelli echo in the mind, at the end of the quarter-final lost by Juventus against Real Madrid: “We were good, but they are very strong.” A consolation that the defeated Borussia Dortmund cannot have, beaten well beyond the 3-2 final score written on the scoreboard due to a chaotic recovery.

BVB on the verge of a feat, but in the end it will be Real-PSG

Xabi Alonso chooses to confirm Gonzalo Garcia in the center of the attack. Despite Kylian Mbappé recovering from the intestinal virus that had caused him to lose five kilos at the beginning of the Club World Cup, as demonstrated by his lightning-fast entry in the second half. However, there are good reasons to believe that the Real Madrid academy player will hold onto the starting jersey even in the semifinal against the Frenchman’s former team.

In the goal that unlocks the game, and that bears Garcia‘s signature, all the reasons that are pushing the Basque coach to prefer him to the Parisian superstar are summarized. Greater presence in the penalty area, greater offensive options, and a valuable off-the-ball work that the Frenchman has never done and probably will never do. His almost namesake, Fran Garcia (also an academy player), then doubles the lead in the 20th minute of the first half, sealing an almost perfect initial phase of the match by the Blancos.

The feeling is that the team is gradually absorbing the tactical principles of the former Bayer Leverkusen coach. There were doubts about whether such an integralist and dogmatic coach, with non-negotiable playing principles, could be accepted by a demanding dressing room like that of the Merengues. Perhaps his past as a player wearing the white shirt, which allowed him to anticipate the type of environment he would find, or simply the credibility of the ideas he embodies.

The fact is that Real dominates and seems completely in control of the game, with BVB seeing their game plan (all defense and counterattack) torn apart after less than half an hour. Kovac realizes this and changes (almost) everything in the second half. Three substitutions and a return to the 4-2-3-1 formation, with the yellow players returning to their most comfortable positions.

Dortmund sees their performance improve, but nothing that could be enough to dent the Spanish leadership in the game: also because doing worse than the first half would not have been easy. In all honesty, Real comes closer to a third goal than BVB does with their first. This is also true for the moments following Beier‘s goal, in the second minute of stoppage time, which hits the game with the unpredictability of a bolt from the blue: but these are just the precursors of a chaotic ending that would have been impossible to predict even just moments before seeing it materialize before one’s eyes.

Before even having time to restart the game, Real seems to (re)close it, but this time definitively, with a splendid overhead kick by Mbappé. Everything seemed set for Xabi Alonso’s triumphant week, where the main concern of the local newspapers would have been praising the progress of the Madrid team under the Basque coach and the strong candidacy of the Frenchman to start against his former team, but the unexpected happens: Real gets distracted and Dortmund reopens the game.

Former Juventus player Huijsen madness, to prevent Guirassy (one-on-one with Courtois) from shooting on goal, he concedes a penalty that the former Stuttgart striker then converts. Adding insult to injury, the Dutch defender naturalized Spanish is sent off. Xabi Alonso loses a fundamental pillar of his defense, who had integrated perfectly into the defensive structure of the Merengues despite having arrived just a month earlier from Bournemouth. This situation further aggravates the already precarious defensive situation of Real (due to injuries) and adds to the list of those who will miss the semifinal due to suspension. Namely Pacho and Lucas Hernandez, sent off for PSG against Bayern.

There seems to be no time for BVB to even dream of a comeback that would be sensational, but the yellow players, buoyed by numerical superiority and the sudden fear in the eyes of their opponents who see a game that was essentially dominated slipping away, pour forward and manage to carve out one last goal-scoring opportunity. Intimidated, Real is pinned back in their own penalty area and fails to clear a cross from the right by Yan Couto, which finds Sabitzer wide open in the center of the area.

It seems like the conclusion of a wonderful fairy tale, but the dragon Courtois once again dons the mantle of Superman and literally spits away the shot of the Austrian midfielder with a beautifully difficult save. The liberating cry of the world’s best goalkeeper, who once again has played a key role in the successes of the Madrid team, is that of the entire blanco people, who now await the strongest team on the planet to understand how far the technical restoration initiated by Xabi Alonso has progressed.