The inside story of city fines

In the crowd before the start of the penalty shootout Davide Ancelotti he was chatting with his father Charles. In his hand is a paper with several names: Lucas, Modric, Bellingham, Nacho, Valverde...Second coach real Madridand son Carletto, recorded the maximum number of penalty takers in the last five minutes of the game. Suddenly Fede admitted that he was “dead“physically I was Rüdiger the one who chose the fifth and final shot. The same one that took the white team to the other semi-finals Champions League, 12th over the past 14 seasons. Nonsense.

“With four or five minutes left I started thinking. Jude is a pitcher. Luka is a pitcher. Lucas is a very good pitcher… Nacho had experience and personality and we saw in training that he was determined to go one way … And Antonio is a player with the ball,” Davide told EL MUNDO in the mixed zone of the tournament. Etihad Stadium

. “Federico was going to be fifth, but he said he was very tired and the truth is that he was dead, so we decided that Rudiger would start. The decision of the pitchers is up to the coaching staff“.

In this crowd, Carlo Ancelotti spoke to the pitchers one after another. “The coach came to me, He told me he was shooting and I told him, “Of course.” I think he told the others the same thing,” he explained, laughing. Lucas Vazquezauthor of one of the goals in the Champions League penalty shootout won against Atlético.

Matches decided by penalties are always decided as a lottery in which the hero is the goalkeeper who saves the most shots. Andrey Lunin He didn’t want to know anything about these two terms. “I’m not a hero“, he hastened to say as he left the locker room, where he summed up the previous work he had done to prepare for the penalty shootout. Always with Llopis, the goalkeeping coach, as a great adviser.

“I’m not a hero. The hero and the best player of the match is the team,” replied the Ukrainian, who started the season as a substitute Kepa after Courtois’s injury and eventually became a starter and star of the Madrid team. “We were preparing penalties with the goalkeeping coach and we had three players with whom we had doubts about whether I could stay in the center or not. In the end we chose one to stay in the middle.

we took a risk, and, thank God, everything worked out,” he reflected.

Besides football, these have been difficult months for Lunin, whose family is still in Ukraine, expecting war every day: “This is not easy, because this is a very difficult situation for my country, for my family.… It’s not easy to train day in and day out because you go to training and you get news, the worst news… And you have to be focused on football, trying to help people. It’s not easy, but I thank everyone who helps me and tries to help people.”

When Rüdiger scored a goal, Lunin’s image said it all. The Ukrainian barely raised his hands, and the German, losing his mind, ran to his comrades. “I’m a calm person“But I can assure you that I am the happiest person in the world right now.” Modric was the first to approach him, and after the Croatian everyone came to hug him.

Bye, Rüdiger He left his teammates and ran alone 80 meters to the part of the stands where the Madrid fans were. Ecstasy. “The players told me they would win, Lunin said he was going to stop… In the end, everything worked out well. We worked the penalties very well and Rüdiger surprised me a lot. We haven’t won any penalties this season. The penalties were good, but we did well,” he commented. Ancelotti

in a mixed zone.

“The Only Way to Win”

Regarding his approach, the Italian admitted that “this was the only way to win here.” “We started well, took the lead on the scoreboard, and then we started to suffer, fight, sacrifice… We lowered the bar too much, City had more control., although you always have more control. I think we defended very, very well. “Everyone thought we were dead, but no one can do it. Madrid never dies,” he said.

“Physically your head is killing you, we are not used to it. But we are a team that works and can show this pride. Look, Jude, he fought in every game and had the courage to take the penalty,” Valverde concluded.