Real Madrid hopes to reach the Champions League final
Emery’s proud Villarreal is a classic home team. Demonstrated this many times, including yesterday. Yes, Liverpool are objectively stronger and made it to the Paris final, defending a 2-0 victory at Anfield Road. But Klopp’s team itself likes its home walls better than other people’s. We remember the result in Barcelona – the defeat, and only then there was a miracle.
Villarreal tried to create a sensation, but Luis Diaz successfully came on as a substitute. And the poor goalkeeper Rulli turned on fire mode, missed under him and walked outside the penalty box. A tragedy for the big smart players from Villarreal. In the first half they deserved to go to the final of the Champions League, and in the second half they lost it. The Spaniards have a whole word “remonade,” which originally meant a cummerbund in the course of the match and has now spread to playoff meetings.
Great responses to other people’s success are part of Eurocup culture. The time has come to study the experience of cambaeks in the semifinals, because this stage is for the toughest teams both physically and mentally. For example, even before the formation of the Champions League in the KCEC there were cases when, after losing in the first semi-final in two or three goals, the teams found the strength to bounce back.
It first happened in 1965 when Liverpool beat Inter 3-1. Then they went to the San Siro in Milan and got the answer from Inter – 3-0, a goal by Giacinto Facchetti sent Herrera’s teams to the final. There, Elenio beat Benfica 1-0 thanks to a goal from world champion Brazilian Jair. A couple of years later, the team of another legend, Puskas, first lost away in the semifinals, but then recovered.
Ferenc was then coach of Panathinaikos, got a 4-1 away win over Crvena Zvezda in Belgrade, but didn’t give up. Got a goal on the road, scored three times. True, the Greeks had no chance in the final because they got Ajax. Van Dijk and Khan scored twice and the Greeks lost. Since then, there have been three more occasions in the history of the KCEC when two or three goals were the difference.
And even more instances where they lacked the one-goal advantage that Manchester City has today. But from the old days we move on to the new ones, because there were bounces back after losses in the LF, too.
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