Manchester:It was the coolest of penalties at the end of one of the wildest matches in Champions League history. With his cheekily dispatched Panenka, Karim Benzema might just have kept Real Madrid's chances alive against Manchester City in the semifinals.
City won a breathless first-leg match 4-3 at Etihad Stadium on Tuesday but squandered so many chances in an end-to-end, basketball-style epic that it hardly felt like a victory for the English club. We could have killed them off, said Phil Foden, one of City's four scorers in a game that had pretty much everything. City built a two-goal lead three times but just couldn't shake off Madrid, the kings of the competition as City manager Pep Guardiola calls them.
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So it felt inevitable that when Aymeric Laporte gave away a penalty with 10 minutes remaining, Madrid wouldn't waste the opportunity to return to Santiago Bernabeu for next week's second leg with, somehow, only a one-goal deficit. Just when many inside the stadium were losing their heads, Benzema kept his, chipping the ball high and straight down the middle before wheeling away in front of Madrid's jubilant fans with his arms outstretched.
The most important thing is we never lay down our arms, Benzema said. We are all in this until the end. With the France striker in its team, Madrid will never lose hope. His double here after back-to-back hat tricks earlier in the knockout stage took his total in the Champions League this season to a competition-high 14 goals. Benzema now has 41 goals in all competitions in the most prolific season of his career.
Without him, Madrid probably would not be still in with a chance of a record-extending 14th European Cup title. Madrid is just Madrid," Guardiola said. "It doesn't matter if you are one goal, two goals or three goals ahead. Guardiola didn't have a bad word to say about his team, though. Exceptional was his verdict.
But he surely knows City should be out of sight and already preparing for a second straight appearance in the final and the chance to avenge last year's loss to Chelsea. The English champions led 2-0 after 11 minutes, with Kevin De Bruyne making a late run into the box to head home Riyad Mahrez's cross and Gabriel Jesus retained in the team after scoring four goals against Watford in the Premier League on Saturday producing a coolly taken finish after spinning David Alaba following De Bruyne's cross.