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Play Was Grim, but Juventus and Real Madrid Will Take the Results
By ROB HUGHESAPRIL 23, 2015

LONDON — So in the end, it was big money, if not beauty, that advanced to the Champions League semifinals.

After wining Wednesday, Real Madrid and Juventus joined Barcelona and Bayern Munich for the Friday draw of the final four, which boast a total of 21 titles in the Champions League or its predecessor, the European Cup.

While Tuesday produced a torrent of goals, particularly in Munich, obstinacy ruled Wednesday, especially in Madrid, where a solitary goal from Javier “Chicharito” Hernández two minutes before the end gave Real Madrid its first victory over its neighbor, Atlético, since last season’s Champions League final.

Juventus prevailed, as the Italian club often does, through organized defense all over the field — along with a penalty kick scored in the first leg against Monaco.

Defending is a part of the sport, but it was pragmatism in the extreme that made a single goal enough for both Juventus and Real Madrid to advance by an aggregate score of 1-0 after two grim matches.

Hernández, the scorer for Madrid, is not even a permanent member of Real’s staff.

He is on loan this season from Manchester United. The Mexican, who started only his third game of 2015 because both Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale were injured, scored with his last kick of the contest before he was grounded by sheer fatigue and cramps. His goal, though, was the reward for persistence as he tried and tried again to be the ultimate partner to Cristiano Ronaldo.

Until that score in the 88th minute, it was not the ideal pairing. There were times when Hernández ran clean through, only for Ronaldo to ignore him. There were times when both shot wide or when Jan Oblak, Atlético’s fine young goalkeeper, nipped opportunities in the bud with his excellent decision making and agility.

However, when the breakthrough came, it was a selfless pass from Ronaldo to the unopposed Hernández that created the goal. “It was a great assist by Cristiano,” said Hernández. “This was a collective effort. We all ran our socks off and fought hard.”

Indeed, they did. Atlético, unbeaten in seven previous games against Real this season, simply ran out of energy and out of players to defend. It had been reduced to 10 men after Arda Turan was sent off for two yellow card offenses — the first a spiteful kick on the heel of Ronaldo early on, and the second a tackle of Sergio Ramos that could have been called a foul on either player.

Ramos, a central defender selected to play in midfield to stiffen Real’s strength, was as guilty as Turan of raising his foot high in that instance. But the moment there was contact, it was Ramos who went to ground shrieking in pain, as he tried to convince the German referee.

It worked. Referee Felix Brych sent off Turan and, eventually, Real made the extra man count. The victory, however, was merited; Real’s attacking intent resulted in 23 shots to Atlético’s meager five.

Much more equal were the numbers of elbows thrown by the two clubs. There are still many, especially in the United States, who struggle to regard soccer as a complete sport because it lacks upper body contact. The play Wednesday night in the Santiago Bernabéu addressed that with countless illegal aggressions using forearms, hands or elbows to disrupt the opponent.


Ronaldo, no less, jumped and planted his shoulder in the face of Jesús Gámez, an act one might say was retaliation for what Gámez and others were doing throughout the game to contain Ronaldo, the World Player of the Year.

Ultimately, both coaches justified the means to their ends.

Real’s Carlo Ancelotti, who usually prefers the sweet science of soccer to prevail, knows full well that unless Real retains the Champions League trophy, he will be fired by the club’s president, Florentino Pérez.

Atlético Coach Diego Simeone spoke after the game of pride in his team’s performance and how the players from his relatively modest club had given everything they could to bridge the gap with Real, the richest club on earth.

There lies the great divide in Madrid. The coach of Real tries to form the right blend after the president acquires extravagantly individualistic players year after year, while the coach of Atlético has to make a lot less go a long way, through spoiler tactics if need be.

And in Monaco? The home team has had Russian money injected into it, only to have it pared back somewhat this year, while the visiting team, Juventus, is leading a lonesome charge in trying to restore Italy’s luster in the competition.

No other club in Italy can lay a glove this season on Juventus, which will most likely win both Serie A and the Italian Cup once again. And a dozen years after The Old Lady of Turin last reached the Champions League semifinals, it is there again.

The tactical straightjacket it employed against Monaco squeezed the life out of a French team that had progressed this far largely on the strength of its own defensive consolidation. Juventus had gone ahead through Arturo Vidal’s penalty in Turin last week, then defended that lead to the end in southern France.

At least one part of Juventus’s defiance was magnificent: a quick-witted defensive intervention by Patrice Evra after his goalkeeper, Gigi Buffon, went AWOL.

But once again, Juventus lent an illicit hand to its victory. Giorgio Chiellini, the tough man of the Juventus defense, dove to the turf and scooped the ball away with his hand to prevent a clear run on the goal by Monaco’s João Moutinho. Juventus deemed the resulting yellow card to be well worth it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/sports/soccer/play-was-grim-but-juventus-and-real-madrid-will-take-the-results.html