Mente fría y arremetida merengue para volver a estar en una semifinal de Champions League (ESP-ENG)

What's up people, happy navel of the week to all Hive, but especially happy Champions Day to all the footballers of the community, today Wednesday will be held the closing of these 4 quarterfinals which only remain to define 2 of the last semifinalists, but this post will not be directed by that way. Yesterday, Tuesday April 18th, we witnessed once again the great potential of a club that for a long time has been making this competition its own, I am talking about Real Madrid, the Spanish soccer club, who in their first leg of the quarterfinals went off with the right foot, The rival was nothing more and nothing less than Chelsea, who despite not being at its best, was still a candidate to continue advancing in the Champions League, The English team knew well what it was like to face Madrid because of their most recent history where the team led by Ancelotti left the blues on the field achieving an incredible comeback where everyone considered the game finished and sentenced, so in this edition of Champions League it was the time for the English team, it was their turn to show that they were also able to turn a result and get revenge for what was that bitter elimination at the hands of the white house.

These were the feelings before the start of the match, many predictions from both sides, waiting for the conclusion of this duel to find out how accurate these speculations were.

With a 2-0 aggregate score in favor of Los Merengues, it was obvious that DT Lampar had to do something about it and this was reflected in his lineup, reinforcing the midfield with a line of 4, looking to stop Madrid's fluidity in that area with two specialists like Modric and Kroos who would see minutes from the start. The English team would opt for ball possession, take control of the match, thus creating many dangerous chances and therefore more opportunity to achieve an equalizer that would bring them back into the game.

For his part, Ancelotti showed us a known lineup, with a defensive zone without any modification, placing Carvajal and Camavinga as fullbacks, who is gradually becoming more comfortable in this position and showing a better version of himself. In the midfield, in charge of starting the game would be the aforementioned players with the addition of Uruguayan Valverde. Finally, in the offensive lines, the duo of Vinicius Jr and Benzema, who have given so much joy to Madrid fans due to the good connection between them, which is reflected on the field with first-class passes, some of which have been by heart. As the third tip of the trident the young Brazilian Rodrygo who is having more prominence and thanks to this earning continuity in the starting 11.

A merengue 11 that in principle can be perceived as a game exploiting the wings with its fast players and some arrivals of players who add to the offense.

After analyzing Chelsea's positioning and approach, my conclusions were correct since the English team would take the ball from the first minute, taking advantage of the Croatian Modric's line advancement, a task that Valverde usually takes on, thanks to his youth and speed he can quickly return to his position and even contribute in other areas of the field. Chelsea would take advantage of Madrid's left flank just after 10 minutes to get their first chance of danger but without direction to the goal by Kante after a cross from James who would have much relevance in that area of the field in much of the match.

Despite the good start of the Blues, Madrid would also have theirs as the minutes went by, remembering that at any opportunity they could increase the advantage they already had and this would be by Rodrygo after good passes continuously in the danger zone to finish the Brazilian with a strong shot that would hit one of the posts of the goal defended by Kepa.

Undoubtedly the match was developing with Chelsea dominating the ball, with Madrid a little more delayed but not locked in their own area, one of the observations that could already be made is that despite the good arrivals of the English team, they were very imprecise when it came to finish the plays, many of these ending up without direction to the goal, However, one of the shortcomings or at least from my point of view is that they did not have a 9 that could receive a ball after a good playmaking, we could see a Havertz as a forward, but in my opinion not someone to meet this requirement.

On the Merengue side there were also some curiosities, with Valverde more delayed than usual and Modric more launched in attack, I think that the Croatian played little in the first half, however the few participations he had in attack were very close to ending in a goal. As a personal opinion, I prefer the approach of the 3 in attack, but Rodrygo entering more to the center of the area to support Benzema and Valverde covering the space left by the Brazilian to do damage on both sides having two arrows as are the Uruguayan and Vinicius Jr, especially in this match where the Chelsea strategist Lampard decided to go for a 3-4-3, proof of this was a counter attack by Madrid in the 42nd minute where the Uruguayan crossed the entire field leaving everyone behind him to serve a cross to Benzema which fortunately for Chelsea this cross was too long and the French striker could not control it in the best way.

This first half was ending with chances for Chelsea, but none enough to change the destiny, one of the clearest would come at the end of this stage in the added minutes where a cross from James would cross the small area of Madrid being at the feet of Cucurella ending face to face with Courtois, the Belgian stretching his body to the maximum stopping what could have been the discount on the scoreboard.

It was time to go to the locker room with a Madrid side with a clean sheet and for the moment qualifying for the semifinals.

The protagonists returned to the field with a change in Madrid's lines with the departure of Alaba for the entry of former Chelsea player Rüdiger, perhaps due to some physical discomfort of the Austrian. After this change, everything remained the same, Chelsea looking for an equalizer and Madrid waiting for a chance on the counter. The first chance for the team led by Lampard came again on the left side defended by Camavinga, Havertz's cross for Kante was intercepted by Militao and after a rebound it fell at the feet of the Frenchman who again stopped Militao, this being one more of the wasted opportunities for the English team to get closer to the equalizer.

Madrid played with fire by giving Chelsea meters and opportunities to score a goal that would motivate them, the Merengues had to find a way to stop the constant arrivals of the rival and this could only be possible with quick advances on the sides taking advantage of the numerical inferiority in the defensive zone that Chelsea left in several opportunities, Militao would break the entire midfield with a cross from a distance to Rodrygo who escaped at speed, The Merengue move would be completed by a bad closing of Chalobah, allowing the Brazilian to continue his run looking for Vinicius at the other end who would have a supportive attitude returning the ball to his compatriot who in two times would convert in goal, leaving even more uphill for the Blues who saw how the illusion of getting the tie escaped them. Rodrygo's goal was very emblematic as he decided to celebrate like the former Madrid Cristiano Ronaldo, adding a touch of nostalgia to this near-qualification to the semis.

From this goal onwards, Chelsea began to disarticulate, thus creating more space for the Whites. Lampard opted to play his last cards by reinforcing the offense with the entry of João Félix and Sterling.

Madrid would also make some changes from the approach within the field, Modric would delay lines, allowing Valverde to have more prominence in the team's attacking advances, this would be consolidated with the departure of French striker Benzema who was replaced by Tchouameni, Dani Ceballos would also enter into action to give rest to Kroos, these changes would give a plus to the white house to launch more attack in search of a Knock Out.

The Uruguayan side would be more recurrent, completely collapsing all the work done by Chelsea in much of the match where they had a high percentage of ball possession, so it would only be a matter of time before the expected happened, a long cross from Rüdiger to Vinicius crossing to the middle for Valverde who left opponents in the way to finally serve a pass to goal for Rodrygo who once again showed his best version in the most prestigious competition, giving the team what they needed and confirming their passage to a new semifinal.

With a resounding 4-0 on aggregate, Real Madrid with a few minutes left could celebrate its qualification in the Champions League for the eleventh time in the last 13 seasons, a competition that adores Madrid and vice versa, where the Merengues get the best out of themselves regardless of their performance in other competitions, the Champions League has something special that infects the white house and leads them to achieve things that for other clubs are completely impossible.

There are still some magical nights to come in these 4 quarterfinals that will give the last 2 qualifiers to the semifinals, everything looks like a semifinal of revenge on the side of the Merengues, we just have to wait for soccer to do its thing to make this possible. For my part I say goodbye but not before wishing you a happy Champions Wednesday waiting for you in a next opportunity!

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