Season review: How Madrid done it to a Super Cup
Real Madrid’s bid to turn a initial bar to successfully urge a UEFA Champions League pretension began in arguably standard style. Trailing 1-0 during home to Sporting CP in Group F, Zinédine Zidane’s side looked to be in difficulty as a time struck 89 minutes; however, as is so mostly a box with Madrid, when a hour came so did a man. Cristiano Ronaldo sent an unstoppable free-kick into a tip corner, afterwards Ãlvaro Morata nodded a stoppage-time leader to send a Santiago Bernabéu wild. “El Madrid nunca se rinde” – Madrid never give adult – goes a phrase, and it came to conclude an well-developed campaign.
This essay is from a executive 2017 UEFA Super Cup programme. Get your duplicate here.
Classic match
One for a memory
If not indispensably a highest-quality match, a 3-3 thriller during Legia Warszawa on matchday 4 had everything. Wonder-goals, a rousing comeback, controversial fortifying and a thespian finish pleasantness of Mateo KovaÄić’s late equaliser – and even afterwards Lucas Vázquez rattled a bar with a unequivocally final kick. It was end-to-end stuff, an out-of-date slugfest in that strategy and gameplans went out of a window. The contingent pull sincerely reflected a competition that had left us reporters as tired as a players.
High achiever
Zidane’s sorcery touch
Many wondered if Zidane would be means to repeat a implausible success of his initial 6 months in charge, nonetheless he eclipsed maybe his possess expectations by alighting Madrid’s initial Spanish Liga/European Cup double in 59 years. Even if sanctified with a patrol of superstars, a Frenchman deserved good credit for his ability to stagger and keep them happy and focused on a job. Moreover, his switch from 4-3-3 to a 4-4-2 solid in a arise of Gareth Bale’s damage valid a masterstroke, enabling Ronaldo to pierce some-more executive and measure a goals that fuelled a impetus to glory.
Best goal
El Golazo
“It’s something I’ve been operative on,” pronounced Casemiro after his Bernabéu consternation idea opposite Napoli in a turn of 16. “We do sharpened use each day and it’s something we unequivocally sight for, with me violation brazen and removing chances from a dilemma of a box.” Surely, though, not even a Brazilian midfielder could have illusory scoring so spectacularly. With Madrid carrying recovered from Lorenzo Insigne’s opener to lead Napoli 2-1, a initial leg was still in a change when Napoli’s Raúl Albiol privileged his lines on 54 minutes. However, a round looped adult for Casemiro to purloin a ideally timed bombardment into a distant dilemma from 30 metres. The Merengues had a feet in a quarter-finals.
Best atmosphere
Derby days
The many electric atmosphere of a whole debate came in a semi-final second leg. A internal derby, a track packaged to a rafters with both sets of supporters for a last-ever European diversion during a Vicente Calderón: this was something special. And when Atlético went 2-0 adult inside 16 mins – to revoke a sum balance to 2-3 – a place was rocking. The Bernabéu had constructed identical special effects when Marco Asensio finished a 4-2 feat over Bayern München in additional time of a quarter-final second leg. After so most tension, came a escape of fun and relief.
Star man
Who else?
After, by his intensely high standards, a still organisation stage, Ronaldo detonate into life during a business finish of a season. Back-to-back hat-tricks in a buliding and semis, holding him past 100 UEFA Champions League goals (105 in total) – an implausible 54 of that have come in knockout matches – were a reason Madrid done it to Cardiff. “There are no difference to do Cristiano Ronaldo justice,” Zidane had pronounced of his No7 before a final opposite Juventus. “He shows what he’s all about each time he’s on a pitch. These are unimaginable stats, though with him anything’s possible.” Ronaldo duly irreproachable his manager with a double past Gianluigi Buffon.
Unsung hero
Luka Modrić
There are several contenders for this award, though Luka Modrić gets a vote. “He’s a actor who creates a group play. When he’s on it, a group are most better,” is how a mythological Raúl González described Modrić recently, and he is right. The 31-year-old creates his side tick, joining counterclaim and conflict with his guile, prophesy and flitting range. Honourable mentions go to Casemiro, Marcelo and Dani Carvajal.
Goal hungry
‘Madrid always measure though they also concede’
That was Bayern trainer Carlo Ancelotti’s pre-quarter-final assessment, though a contribution are equally vigorous. The Blancos kept only one purify piece all debate – in a 3-0 semi-final first-leg taming of Atlético – though crucially they found a net in each European fixture. In fact, they finished a deteriorate carrying scored in a record 65 unbroken games in all competitions, from a 2015/16 UEFA Champions League semi-final first-leg stand-off during Manchester City onwards.
One to watch
Marco Asensio
Look no serve than Asensio: if a overwhelming strike on his Madrid entrance in final year’s UEFA Super Cup announced his breakthrough season, a electric aggressive midfielder soon went from strength to strength. He netted and was named male of a compare on his UEFA Champions League bow, hermetic a better of Bayern, and afterwards notched a fourth as a late surrogate in a final. The 21-year-old also won a china round during a UEFA European Under-21 Championship. Next up: a starting place in Zidane’s side.
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