The real Madrid will seek his fourteenth crown of Champions LeagueMeanwhile he Villarreal will participate in only his second semi-final of the highest European competition, after winning his duels on Tuesday against Chelsea and the bayern respectively.
Carlo Ancelotti’s team will face Wednesday’s winner in the semi-final between Atletico Madrid and the Manchester City (with a 1-0 lead in the first leg for the English), while Villarreal will face Liverpool (who won 3-1 in Lisbon) or benfica.
Both Spanish teams appealed to heroic performances to advance to this stage, although with different feelings.
Real Madrid was dominated by the Chelsea and at times seemed to let slip the 3-1 lead from the first leg in London, as the Chelsea he was able to turn the global score around with goals from Mason Mount and the Germans Antonio Rügiger and Timo Werner. Until before this commitment, the Merengues had not allowed more than one goal in any of their last seven games in Champions.
However, the Whites first forced extra time with a goal from Rodrygo Goes when he had been on the pitch for two minutes and then sealed their qualification in extra time with a header from Karim Benzema, who put the global 5-4. Before this season, the most goals Benzema had scored in a campaign in the Champions League they were seven; now he has scored seven in his last three games in the competition.
In this way, Madrid maintains its streak of 28 games scoring a goal at home in the knockout phase of the Champions. The last time they failed was against Barcelona in the semi-finals in 2011. By asserting the lead from the first leg, they also put their record at 18-1 for the times they have advanced when winning the first leg by two or more goals in this competition.
In the other round, Villarreal appealed to a “perfect” defense, as its technical director Unai Emery defined it, to prevent an “overwhelming” bayern will be positioned “so high” above the yellow submarine.
Despite the fact that the Spanish team allowed a goal from the Pole Robert Lewandowski in the 52nd minute after a mistake in the away ball from the visiting defense, when the game was heading to extra time, Villarreal extended their epic in this Champions with a goal from Nigerian Samu Chukwueze, his first goal so far this year and just the sixth he has scored this season in all competitions with the Spanish team.
In Munich, throughout the meeting the bayern overwhelmed the Villarreal with 24 shots against four from the visitor.
“The key was in the first leg. That’s where we lost the tie,” Bavarian coach Julian Nagelsmann said after the game. The numbers confirm the coldness of the situation, since 2015, the “Rekordmeister” has lost a first leg match in the Champions League six times and was eliminated in all of them. On the other hand, Lewandowski was two goals away from equaling his best mark in the Champions League (15 goals in the 2019-20 campaign).
For the second time in its history, Villarreal reached the Champions League semi-finals, the previous time losing 1-0 on aggregate against Arsenal in the 2005-06 season.
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