Magical Real Madrid beat cursed Manchester City in a game that made no sense - The Warm-Up

THURSDAY'S BIG STORIES Flipping Heck Ad/> Think of the match reports. Think of all those poor lost match reports, topped and tailed and ready to send as the 90-minute mark ticked around. And think about how boring they must have been.

Champions League‘It’s their history!’ – Guardiola after Madrid stun CityAN HOUR AGO No fault of the press pack, of course; we're not coming for their prose. But up until 90 minutes, City's visit to Madrid was — to use the code words — a cagey and intriguing affair. City, although they hadn't played particularly well, had done enough.

Madrid, although they hadn't played particularly badly, had failed to manufacture a single good chance, or even come to that a single shot on target. Nobody had overthought or underthought anything: the obvious thing to happen, had happened, and the better team had won. Indeed, the most agitating thing about the game last night was the prospect of the final: on the one hand, the two best teams in the world; on the other, two teams from the same league.

A question of taste, of sporting questions against narrative HANG ON. THAT'S REAL MADRID'S MUSIC. The word that's being thrown around for this Madrid team is magic.

This is another code word and it means, essentially, «Look, we don't really know what's going on here, but nor do you, and nor does anybody that's actually responsible, so that's okay.» Any sufficiently inexplicable comeback is indistinguishable from magic, as Arthur C Clarke would have written if he'd been a football fan. Probably Of course, while magic is fun to watch — unless you're a rabbit, or Rúben Dias — it's a little unsatisfying as an explanation. A wizard did it? Well then.