timeThomas Tuchel warned you couldn’t see the Real Madrid goal, so Toni Kroos helped point it out, but Bayern Munich still couldn’t stop it. The German coach said on the eve of this most classic of European rivalries that sometimes, when you watch their games and analyze them carefully, everything seems to be under control, while the 14-time victors seem to be outnumbered but not in any way. No progress. Then, boom, five seconds, ten seconds go by and the ball goes into the net.
When you rewind and try to figure out where it all started. Here, with the controls in hand, he can actually pinpoint the exact moment his defense is torn in half. The game begins, Madrid begins, in Kroos’s heart and at his feet: right in the center of the screen, strolling through midfield seemingly going nowhere, looking to his left, hoping for something other than Vinicius Júnior. Others could look there, too, following his eyes instead of his fingers. Suddenly he stretched out an arm to indicate the open road, and off he went. A slight turn of foot and the ball follows; Vinicius goes past Kim Min-jae.
The play was clean, but Vinicius later insisted it was Kroos’ gift as he ran straight towards his team-mate and pointed backwards. “We know each other very well,” he said as the final whistle blew, a 2-2 draw giving Madrid a slight advantage they didn’t look like in the early stages. “Tony,” he said, “always does simple things.” No matter what, he always makes them look simple. Twenty-four minutes passed and it was their first shot; Bayern already had seven by then.
That’s pretty much what Tuchel said could happen, and what Madrid did. In the Champions League since 2010-11, they have taken fewer shots than their opponents on 25 occasions, lost just nine, and have exceeded their opponents’ expectations in 24 knockout games. They know this and so do their opponents.
Can you feel the cold grip of fatalism in just 39 seconds? Or five minutes and forty-six seconds? Or six minutes and fifty-one? Or eight and thirty? That might have been the case against Madrid – those were the exact times Bayern took their first four shots, the earliest being Leroy Sane’s and one-on-one with Harry Kane – and when there’s no shot on goal, a kind of The feeling of déjà vu arises spontaneously.
At Bayern’s insistence, with Musiala, Kane and Muller all involved, Real Madrid could not find a way out until Kroos stepped up. It wasn’t just the passing, although that’s what really got them back in the game, it was the determination to control the game, the composure to execute it, and the respect he exerted, like he had a patch of grass to himself, other No one is allowed to trample. By halftime, there had been just one pass breakup. When he quit, he had completed 79 of 82 events.
Most importantly, it was a goal that gave Real Madrid a lead and a lifeline at a stage when they were once again being overwhelmed – it was a very weighty pass and, in fact, it was one that Bayern and King specifically facilitated. Bayern, not feeling fatalistic, took the lead and Real Madrid had to respond again. Vinicius made the most decisive contribution, scoring two goals, the “assist” of the second goal leading to a penalty kick.
But Kroos’s refusal to let the game escape the team he has represented for eight years is a reminder that beyond all the mystique, wealth and heroism, there is something else at work here: a sense of control. Sometimes, some items, like the boots he’s had for 13 years, force his brand to make them just for him and look dated.
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In fact, Cross may not be here at all and may not return. When Real Madrid were eliminated last year, some concluded that his time with Luka Modric was coming to an end: there was a desire to speed up the transition, and Carlo Ancelotti asked for understanding from his senior players. Kroos was not in the starting lineup at the start of the season. He began to consider retirement, and still does: He has two months left on his contract, has not yet said whether he will stay, and has only one response: please. The coach now says he is “irreplaceable” even if he doesn’t play.
He did it here like no other. In the Champions League semi-finals, he was surrounded by the best players: Jude Bellingham, Vinicius, Musiala and Kane. Like it’s no big deal. “It’s normal, it’s nothing new; we wanted to control the game better and he did that like no one else. He might not run, but that’s what Fede Valverde, Eduardo Ca and Mavinga, Aurelian Chumeni’s purpose, can he pass? No one in this game finishes with a higher percentage, Juan Román Riquelme calls him football The closest thing in the world to Roger Federer: “He can go out, play, and go home and he doesn’t even need to shower: he doesn’t sweat, he doesn’t get dirty, he doesn’t need to fall. He just needs to point the way on the screen to see what Bayern Munich cannot.
