THE LEGEND OF LOS BLANCOS [ REAL MADRID'S UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE CAMPAIGN 2021-22]

                     

Image Credit- 90 Min. 

AUTHOR- VINITA 

Real Madrid has always performed well in the Champions League. In between 2013-18, they won 4 UCL titles in 5 seasons. Something which other teams can only dream of.  However, their performance had become less clinical after CR7's departure. But to everyone’s surprise, 2021-22 season turned out to be the greatest Champions League win for Real Madrid. In Round of 16 they defeated the French champions PSG. In the quarterfinals they defeated the defending UCL champions Chelsea. In Semi-final they knocked out the English Champions Manchester City. Whereas in the finals they defeated the favourites Liverpool.  Real was an underdog in every game, never a favourite to win in any of the knockout rounds and moreover, never was a favourite to win the UCL this season. But the Galacticos proved everyone wrong.

 

Now coming to their campaign. The Los Blancos were placed with the Italian Champions of last season Inter Milan. However Real seemed flawless in the group stage till they met Sheriff Tiraspol who exploited the chink in their armour. Still, they finished as a group topper. They met PSG and Mbappe was on fire, Real was nowhere close to winning the tie but they overturned the tie in the last half hour of the 2nd leg. Mbappe scored in both leg but it wasn't enough to overpower Benzema's comeback hat trick! Although it was just enough to trigger memes on Mbappe and Real Madrid transfer chances.

 

Real Madrid was drawn in Q/F to former champions and one of the best teams in the tournament Chelsea. This time Benzema nearly sealed the tie with the first leg hat trick but the Real found themselves in trouble when Chelsea matched the first leg deficit but then came Benzema with a 96th-minute winner in extra time.

 

Real met Manchester City in the semis. To be honest, Real's defence was as bad as Man Utd in the first leg wherein they could have lost the tie there itself. But thanks to Vinicious Jr. and Benzema who kept them in the tie scoring 3 together. Mahrez scored for City with Real needing 3 goals to win till the 90th minute. But then the world saw an unbelievable comeback of 3 goals being scored in just 5 minutes by Real.

 

Real now faced Liverpool in the finals who were on fire. Liverpool played their well-known pressing-attacking football and Mané almost put one in only for man of the match Courtouis to deny it by the finest of margins and the ball getting deflected back from the post. Liverpool put Real Madrid on their toes for the whole 90 mins, and this is how you play a cup final, not many teams can dominate Real Madrid nearly like that. Real sat back and waited for their best chance blocked numerous world-class attacks from Liverpool and grabbed their chance in 2nd half when Vini Jr. scored after Benzema cleverly left the ball for him. But the best and defining moment of the match came when Mo Salah's impossible-looking shot was blocked by Courtouis from very close range while fans were looking in disbelief. There was nothing Liverpool who were playing arguably their best football could do. Courtouis was literally the wall that stopped the whole of Liverpool, he performed exceptionally well. Overall, the balance of play was slightly towards Liverpool but Real never really looked out of the game. In fact, they were fantastic in keeping possession under pressure and playing from the back whilst soaking all the attacking play by Liverpool.

 

Real ended up winning their well-deserved Champions League title with just 1 shot on target even with Liverpool playing a flawless game. All these tough runs to the final made this win so sweet, and special. So, in my opinion, this was the hardest winning run for any UCL winner ever but yet the greatest UCL campaign of all time. No one expected them to come this far in this season. Everyone wrote them off. But they’re Real Madrid, we witnessed so many amazing comebacks by them. The UCL kings. The comeback kings. The mentality kings. Just an incredible club.

 

I believe after 10 years when we will look back at the Real Madrid’s UCL campaign we’d say "What a legendary run this was, what fantastic players Modric and Benzema were, and what a brilliant mind Carlo Ancelotti had"