The main intrigue of the Champions League final match died a few days before it started. I mean the place in the goal of Real Madrid, which, as we all hoped to the last, will go to Andriy Lunin. But the unexpected news about the flu, which caught the Ukrainian goalkeeper, left no other option but Courtois in the goal at Wembley....
Flu, not flu? Sometimes, in order to somehow justify the absence of a key player on the pitch, they talk about illness, often a cold or a virus. Unverifiable from the outside. I remember how Valery Lobanovsky, annoyed by the unsuccessful game of Rinat Dasaev at the 1990 World Cup against Romania, decided not to put him on Argentina. But to remove the resonance, announced Dasaev had a cold. Then, reading many memoirs of participants of those events, I made sure that yes: the cold was exactly announced. Something similar, as it seems to me, happened with Lunin.
Carlo Ancelotti's decision to put Courtois in goal proved to be correct. No matter how much we would like to gloat after such a match, saying that Papa Carlo ate? It didn't work. Courtois did not have a lot of work in this game, but in the main and key episode of this meeting he played perfectly.
We are talking about Adeyemi's one-on-one. The Borussia striker had a split second to make one of two decisions: shoot or beat the goalkeeper. Courtois forced him to beat him, and managed to interfere in such a way that the player moved to the side and could not immediately hit the empty net. I don't know how Lunin would have acted in this situation, it's important how Courtois played - and he won the key fight of the game.
"Borussia played more or less on equal terms as long as they had the strength. Real Madrid's main strategy is to wait for their opponents to slacken, to get tired. Individually strong players are able to maintain a high tempo of the game by moving the ball. Nobody makes unnecessary movements and does not just run around. Even Vinicius makes spurts point-by-point, resting after each high-speed action.
"Real Madrid" becomes especially difficult when it loses a match (we saw this in the quarter-finals and semi-finals of the draw), but if there is a normal exchange of attacks and a quiet draw, Madrid only need time. Actually, most of Ancelotti's teams played just such a leisurely football, without too much fuss and running. Remember AC Milan, winners of the 2003 Champions League.
Borussia predictably ran out of energy in the second half. In addition, Madrid adapted to the game of the main designer of German attacks - Julian Brandt. What he was able to do in the first half categorically ceased to work out in the second half.
A really outstanding game was demonstrated by Eduardo Kamawinga, who seemed to be everywhere. It was as if he was showing the last match and for the Slivos, and in general at the club level Toni Kroos, in what hands he passes his legacy. Who remains, so to speak, to "plough on". Kamawinga tore all those game links, which seemed to have been established by Dortmund in the opening game.
Or maybe it only seemed like they were, because there were no really sharp moments except for the already mentioned one-on-one at Courtois' goal. Niklas Füllkrug's shot against the bar was offside, and a couple of tight shots from outside the box should be taken by any keeper. Yes, you can probably remember a header by the same Füllkrug in the middle of the second half, just before the missed goal, but again I'm sure that any decent goalkeeper should be able to cope with such a shot. Of course Courtois kicked that ball superbly technically, sideways, extinguishing any hint of a tackle.
And then came the winning goal, which, as they say, came out of nowhere. This is a misleading cliché, which is designed not to explain the situation, but to take the team that missed it out of the picture, presenting the situation as if it deserved to concede the goal. In reality, that's not what happened. Like arm wrestlers, Real Madrid began to methodically lay the opponent's hand on the table from the beginning of the second half. And as soon as the opponent physically tired, it immediately translated into a goal. This goal by Daniel Carvajal was definitely not accidental, as in the opening of the second half, a corner was also awarded, but the Real defender's shot lacked the smallest of things. In both cases, Carvajal was guarded in his own penalty area by Niklas Füllkrug, in my opinion the main loser of the final.
What's important to note here. The game of the modern striker is also about playing in defence of your own goal on the "first floor". Now a forward who for some reason doesn't do that or does it poorly becomes the weak link of the team. Niklas Füllkrug is 31 years old. This is his first season at Borussia Dortmund, before that it was Werder, hanging around in obscurity. Füllkrug, although called up to the German national team, has not been trained to play with his head in his own penalty box, he does it at his conventional Werder level. At the age of 31, it's impossible to teach a striker how to choose his position in the penalty area and train his jumping ability. He's already the way he is. He plays the way he knows how to play. So much so that he is jumped over by Carvajal, who is ten centimetres shorter.
It was a disaster, because the conceded goal destroyed Borussia. After that goal, it was already on the pitch, and the frantic substitutions of Dortmund coach Edin Terzic seemed to emphasise his capitulation. By the way, the exit before the goal of Marco Royce, who like his compatriot Kroos is saying goodbye to the club, immediately weakened the team. It was Royce who did not pick up the ball, knocked out of the penalty area, after which there was a blocked shot and a goal corner, served by Kroos. Such were the different farewells. Two players, both Germans, one at his club won everything, the other at his club won nothing, or almost nothing.
And here it's time to talk about who has the right to play in the Champions League final and who should give up their place, otherwise we get such embarrassments. Yes, Füllkrug deserved his place in the squad. So what of it? He deserved it, got it and failed. Yes, of course, Royce should have played in this match. But, perhaps, in the starting line-up just instead of Füllkrug (of course, with a change in the tactical pattern up front) or not to go out at all and not to disgrace himself....
Yes, and Lunin has earned the right to play in the final. But... This is the final, just one match, in which there may not be enough time to correct someone's mistake. Everyone has been given the opportunity to see that. And somehow I think that for Lunin's record, the option he got was the best one.
Artem ZHOLKOVSKY for Dynamo.kiev.ua
