Twenty-one Champions League titles (out of 67) suddenly reached the semi-finals of the most prestigious of European football competitions on Tuesday April 18. If Real Madrid (fourteen times crowned, and defending champion) is used to regularly besieging the last European four and easily eliminated Chelsea, AC Milan (seven trophies) had lost the keys since sixteen years old, and had to fight to dismiss Napoli, another Serie A club.
The “Rossoneri” suffered from the start, as if suffocated by the pressing of “Napoli” pushed by a boiling Diego Maradona stadium, but, like the first leg won 1-0, they knew how to turn their backs and wait their luck. On one of the first counterattacks, Rafael Leao distinguished himself by obtaining a penalty for a fault by Mario Rui. But, in a suddenly almost silent stadium, Neapolitan goalkeeper, Alex Meret, released Giroud’s attempt. Shortly after, the Neapolitan goalkeeper won a new fiery duel against the French.
After half an hour of play, Napoli seemed to be a little overtaken by fatigue, after a season at a hundred miles an hour which saw it largely dominate the Italian championship. Politano and Rui had to leave on injury (33rd). Leao on the contrary took advantage of a failed control by Frenchman Tanguy Dembélé to fly away. In a ride worthy of the Neapolitan idol, Diego Maradona, the Portuguese went through three defenders to serve Giroud who, this time, could not fail, and scored his fifth European goal of the season (0-1, 43rd) .
With its two-goal lead in aggregate, Milan has become ever more compact and defensive. And if Mike Maignan finally gave in in extra time on a header from Victor Osimhen (1-1, 90 3), the French goalkeeper had already been decisive by also stopping a penalty from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (82nd).
For AC Milan, the road to the final in Istanbul, where the Rossoneri played and lost a memorable final in 2005 against Liverpool, could pass through a derby against Inter, if the Nerazzurri qualify on Wednesday against Benfica after their 2-0 first leg win. “With this state of mind, we can dream,” said Olivier Giroud on Mediaset.
Union minimum for Real
In the last four, another shock looms between Real Madrid Karim Benzema and Manchester City, imperial against Bayern (3-0) before the return, Wednesday in Munich. With a two-goal lead against Chelsea, the defending champion, jostled at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday, managed to stun the English club with a fatal brace from Rodrygo, reproducing the score of the first leg at the Bernabeu.
To really ignite the stadium and shake the Spaniards, Chelsea needed to open the scoring. But the Blues’ attacking streaks have too often resembled handball attack-defense, where the ball went right to left and left to right, without really worrying Madrid’s full-back much.
Opposite, Real has long done the bare minimum offensively. But against this Chelsea, it was enough. In the second half, the Merengues scored on their first opportunity. Taking advantage of the huge space in the back of Cucurella and the missed interception by Trevoh Chalobah, Rodrygo escaped on the right.
His low cross was missed by Karim Benzema, for once very discreet in this match and replaced (71st), but Vinicius was there to put Rodrygo back in the line who controlled and scored in the middle of four opponents ( 0-1, 52nd).
If the Londoners did not abdicate, the match never seemed likely to change. Worse, in the 80th, after a great breakthrough and a caviar from Federico Valverde, Rodrygo only had to push the ball into the empty goal to further underline the gulf between the two teams (0-2) and give the kick-off of the exodus of supporters of the Blues, annoyed.
For Chelsea, crowned in 2021, it is the last ray of sunshine of a failed season which has thus disappeared. The fourth defeat since the return of Frank Lampard to the bench sounds like a resounding failure for the American owners, ultra-spenders but out of the C1 and far from European places in the championship.
