When Real Madrid seemed to have emerged from the hole they had fallen into against Celta, they threw themselves back in, dug a little more, almost drowned, stepped on the bottom and escaped from the hole again in extra time towards the quarterfinals. final of the Copa del Rey. He’s still bewildered, but he’s still alive, after acting out an even crazier version of the crazy nights at the Bernabéu in which Endrick returned from ostracism to turn the night around.
5
Andrii Lunin, Fran García (Jude Bellingham, 91 min), Antonio Rüdiger, Raúl Asencio, Lucas Vázquez, Aurélien Tchouaméni, Luka Modric (Federico Valverde, 78 min), Dani Ceballos (Eduardo Camavinga, 69 min), Brahim Díaz (Arda Guler, min. 69), Kylian Mbappé (Endrick, 78 min.) and Vinícius Júnior (Rodrygo, 105 min.)
2
Ivan Villar, Oscar Mingueza, Marcos Alonso, Carl Starfelt, Javi Rodriguez (Javier Manquillo, 94th minute), Sergio Carreira (Franco Cervi, 74th minute), Williot Swedberg (Pablo Duran, 55th minute), Ilaix Moriba and Fran Beltran (Hugh Sotelo, min. 55), Hugh Alvarez Jonathan Bamba (66 mins) and Borja Iglesias (74 mins)
Goals
1-0 min. 36: Kylian Mbappe. 2-0 min. 47: Vinicius Junior. 2-1 min. 82: Jonathan Bamba. 2-2 min. 90: Marcos Alonso. 3-2 min. 107: Endrick. 4-2 min. 111: Federico Valverde. 5-2 min. 118: Endrick
Referee José Luis Munuera Montero
yellow cards
Raúl Asencio (min. 90), Iván Villar (min. 95), Marcos Alonso (min. 100), Carl Starfelt (min. 100), Endrick (min. 108), Borja Iglesias (min. 110)
Before the liberating outcome in the second leg of extra time, he had traversed every emotional and game world imaginable. There were many games in one. He overcame a period of mourning and anger from his people, another of progressive resurgence with the impetus of Mbappé and even a recreational one. At that point, already with 2-0 and a good collection of good chances for more, after a small round of applause for the changes, Camavinga, who had awarded a penalty to Gavi in Jeddah, made a bad pass at the start and rescued to Celta, who had not lowered his arms, although the seats had already begun to empty. They missed the classic Bernabéu movie, but in reverse: Madrid, coming back when it seemed like there was no more. In reality, he came back from behind with a penalty from Asencio that allowed the tie. As if he had forgotten the frustrations he has caused others, as if he sought to demonstrate that he could make the Jeddah disaster worse, but in another way.
And he knew how his people were, wanting to let off steam from the public address presentations. Tchouameni started collecting whistles before starting, more than Lucas Vázquez, Vinicius and Ancelotti. The Italian introduced six changes compared to the classic in the final, but kept the most notable ones, especially the Frenchman, although he placed him as a pivot. And there he left a very notable game, perhaps his best performance of the year. His place next to Rüdiger was taken by Asencio, the most celebrated, attentive and forceful on the cut. But even that was turned around when he brought down Bamba five seconds into the 90th minute and Marcos Alonso opened the way to an unusual overtime with his goal.
The road to that point was, of course, twisty. Madrid showed a certain change in attitude at the start. He was going to look very high for Celta, who had difficulties finding Fran Beltrán and Ilaix Moriba to advance. El Real blinded them little by little until turning the night into a monologue. But a tedious monologue. Modric and Ceballos were on the field, but even then Madrid had nothing resembling a purpose. He went to one side, came back, and did not leave a scratch on Celta’s defense. In mid-January, Madrid is a team waiting for a flash, no matter how strange the way it takes off. Few stranger than the 1-0, which started in the Lunin area. Vinicius recovered a ball in front, but he dallied and the ball ended up loose, crossing from side to side towards the place where Swedberg was running. There Lunin crossed him, who went to the ground and left him protesting on the grass because he touched his feet with his hands. But the referee did not award a penalty and life had to go on. The VAR would speak.
. He hooked onto the ball in the center of the field and crossed to Iván Villar. Although before reaching him, Javi Rodríguez crossed him. He outwitted him and burst the net. Another 50-meter run from the Frenchman that ended in a goal, like in Jeddah. Real in the wake of Mbappé’s inspiration, once again the brightest of the group. The Frenchman chose the right moment to give the ball to Brahim on the verge of offside, and from there the Malaga native threw Vinicius into space. Only against the goalkeeper, the Brazilian did not fail.
Madrid began to have fun, even with flashes of fantasy, until the blackout hit and they got lost again. But at the bottom of the chaos, the flame of absurd chaos still beats. Endrick appeared and burst the net from the front. And then Valverde from even further away. And in the end, once again, the Brazilian boy who had been lost for a long time and on the back foot ended up rescuing Madrid from their loss to put them in the quarterfinals.
