What Real Madrid do shouldn’t work but yet again they are still standing

Manchester City had 60% of the ball. They had 16 shots to Real Madrid’s 11. They won on xG, taking a consensus of various algorithms, about 3.1 to 1.6. And yet they will go to the Bernabéu next week leading only 4-3 and, probably, with a grim sense of a familiar history being played out.

Madrid have won four Champions Leagues in the past decade. They have rarely, if ever, been the best side in the world in that period. In Cristiano Ronaldo’s nine years at the club, they won only two La Liga titles. They couldn’t produce consistently enough to dominate the league and yet, somehow, in the Champions League, in what had always been their tournament, they got results.

Sometimes it was down to rivals, often Atlético, but also at times City and Wolfsburg, freezing at key moments. Sometimes it was down to freakish errors from opponents: Pep Guardiola going gung-ho in 2014, Mehdi Benatia’s daft foul on Lucas Vázquez in the 2018 quarter-final, then the Loris Karius aberration in the final. Often it was down to brilliant individuals – Ronaldo, Luka Modric, Gareth Bale, Sergio Ramos – doing something brilliant. They found a way.

This season, the tendency has been brought to new heights. This is madridismo in excelsis. Madrid have lost at home to Sheriff Tiraspol. They have been largely outplayed for long spells by Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea. They have repeatedly seemed on the brink of conceding the goal that would, at last, bring reality to bear. But, like Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction, they somehow cannot be finished off. Thibaut Courtois keeps making remarkable saves. Luka Modric keeps playing remarkable passes. Opposing goalkeepers keep making remarkable mistakes. And, most of all, Karim Benzema keeps scoring remarkable