Athletistic / Football. On May 8 in Madrid, at the renovated Santiago Bernabeu, Real Madrid will host Bayern Munich in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final. The first meeting took place on April 30 in Germany and ended in a draw – 2:2.

Logically, the favorite to reach the final of the tournament is the Spanish superclub, but logic has not always played a dominant role in the confrontation between these teams. This is exactly what happened 12 years ago.

In the 2011/2012 season, UEFA granted the right to host the Champions League final at the Allianz Arena in Munich. This fact immediately made Bayern one of the main favorites of the tournament and put the Munich superclub on a par with the Spanish giants – Barcelona (the current winner of the Champions League) and Real Madrid.

“Bavaria” went through the playoffs very confidently: in the 1/8 finals, after an unexpected defeat against “Basel” (0:1) in the first match of the confrontation, they simply destroyed the Swiss ( 7:0) in the rematch. In the quarter-finals, the German club beat Marseille twice by the same score (2:0).

If we talk about Real Madrid, Los Blancos’ last Champions League trophy was in 2002. 10 years without a victory for such a big club is an unaffordable luxury. Therefore, only one thing was expected from José Mourinho, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Sergio Ramos, Xabi Alonso, Iker Casillas, Karim Benzema and a number of other stars of world football: a European triumph.

Real began the playoffs with matches against CSKA Moscow. In the capital of Russia, the teams parted peacefully (1:1), but in the return match the “Royal Club” defeated the army team (4:1), extending its performance in European competition.

Photo source: PFC CSKA

In the quarterfinals, José Mourinho’s team, by the will of fate, found itself in the Cypriot APOEL. “Real” did not extend the fairy tale of the Cyprus team and beat it twice (3:0 away and 5:2 at home).

The first semi-final between Bayern and Real Madrid took place on April 17 in Munich and ended with a victory for the Germans with a score of 2:1. The decisive goal was scored in the 90th minute by striker Mario Gomez. The teams were evenly matched in terms of play, so everyone expected a concert from the second game. That’s how it happened.

In the home match, held in Madrid on April 25, Real started simply amazingly, changing the course of the confrontation in 14 minutes – this is exactly how long it took Cristiano Ronaldo to score a double. However, Bayern was not going to give up and quickly regained a goal, equalizing the score on aggregate – in the 28th minute Dutch genius Arjen Robben scored from 11 meters. But then the teams announced an intermission and postponed the decision on the main question until later: neither until the end of the first half, nor in the second half of normal match time, nor even in In the extra half hour of the match, no one managed to score a goal. Everything was decided during the penalty shootout.

The goalkeepers stood out: for Bayern – Manuel Neuer, for Real – Iker Casillas.

David Alaba started the series. The current Real Madrid defender upset his future team and sparked a huge shootout.

Then Cristiano Ronaldo approached the ball. If during the main time of the meeting the Portuguese managed to beat Neuer twice (including once from the penalty spot), then this time Ronaldo made a mistake: the goalkeeper guessed the direction of Cristiano’s shot and, jumping into his right corner, parried the brilliant striker’s shot.

Photo source: UEFA

Bayern’s second shot was converted by Mario Gomez, after which Kaká tried to beat Neuer and shot in exactly the same way as Cristiano Ronaldo. However, this time Neuer managed to guess his opponent’s idea and gave his team a huge chance of final success.

It seemed to many that Real were already doomed, but Los Blancos’ relationship with the Champions League is a special story, which is when the magic kicked in. Munich’s next two shots were parried by Iker Casillas, spoiling the mood for Toni Kroos and Philipp Lahm. Meanwhile, Real Madrid’s first penalty in the post-match series was converted by Xabi Alonso.

In order to level the teams’ chances again, Sergio Ramos had to take the penalty. The brilliant defender was not yet a full-time penalty taker for Real Madrid or the Spanish national team and only came close to the position occasionally. Ramos had incredible punching power, which may have played a cruel joke on him. Sergio approached the balloon and shot it so high that ornithologists feared for the safety of Madrid’s birds. Even old Hottabych would hardly have helped Ramos at that time.

Photo source: Marca

This penalty immediately spread into millions of memes, and Ramos long remembered his “unique” strike. True, it must be said that Sergio survived all the ridicule with dignity and subsequently became one of the most powerful penalty takers in world football.

After that, Bayern only had one shot left to reach the decisive stage of the tournament, which Bastian Schweinsteiger did with honor. The midfielder did not flinch in the decisive moment and led his team to the home final of the Champions League.

It is interesting that on May 19, Bayern, in the Champions League final, being the clear favorite in the match against Chelsea, again brought everything to penalties. There, the Football Gods obtained a favor from the German club and presented the trophy to the London club.

It is quite possible that this time Real and Bayern will not avoid hassle and determine the second finalist of the Champions League for the 2023/2024 season on penalties. Few will be surprised by this development of events. Very soon we will find out whether there will be a remake of the match that took place 12 years ago or the teams will open a new chapter of the confrontation.

Nikita Serbakov, Athletistic



Athletistic