The first match in the history of Unión Berlin in the Champions League came at the Santiago Bernabéu, and the place that has touched the sky the most times in the European Cup showed the German rookie what European football is: it doesn't matter what you fight and how high you build your own wall that in the end Madrid, in a relationship as inexplicable as it is forceful, ends up knocking down your heart. Unión surrendered their weapons in the 94th minute, in another extra time of ecstasy in Chamartín to the glory of Jude Bellingham, connected to the history of his new club in the rejection of a corner. As simple as that. [Narrative and statistics (1-0)]

Ancelotti chose Luka Modric, who had only started in the League on the day of Getafe, to complete a diamond that is already the watchword of this new Madrid. A colossal rhombus in which the Italian rotates youth with experience, physique with elegance. And the Croatian, just turned 38, was the best in a soporific first half. That's how simple football is sometimes. Next to him, Tchouaméni, Camavinga, who have had better afternoons.

The whites landed in the Champions League with too much slowness, far from the pace of play necessary to be “one of the four best” that Carletto set as his goal in Tuesday's preview.. The Italian rotated in defense, placing Fran García, taking Alaba to the left side and placing Lucas on the right wing due to Carvajal's injury. Without the two starting full-backs, the best along with Bellingham at the start of the season, the Madrid team lost depth, verticality and speed in their static possessions. It was too predictable against a Unión Berlin comfortable in its scheme of five defenders and three midfielders. A bus, wow.

Erratic between the lines

Madrid's best options came from Lucas Vázquez's centers led by Joselu, who had a couple of chances at the beginning but failed to send the ball into the net.. A little more before the break. Ancelotti scrambled, insisting to the four midfielders and Rodrygo on the need to rotate their positions and move around the entire attacking front, but the white game, slow and erratic between the lines, stumbled again and again against the German wall.

Urs Fischer's pupils, revelation of the last two Bundesliga seasons, felt comfortable on the pitch while their fans made Chamartín their own in the stands.. 5,000 souls who pushed throughout the game and raised the morale of a team that can give many surprises in this group. They did not have clear chances, but they touched Kepa's goal on a couple of attempts and disturbed the Madrid movement.. Enough.

After the break, Madrid woke up. No changes, no modification of the scheme or great fanfare. He increased the speed of his game and began to find space behind the German defense. If there is one thing Ancelotti always tries to do, it is to generate superiority on the wing, especially on the right.. Bring together the winger, the midfielder and the forward on that side and end up getting meters towards the rival goal. This is how his best opportunities came.

Joselu's header against Doekhi's opposition. AFP

On the right, a combination between Lucas, Modric and Rodrygo ended in two shots from the Brazilian, first into Ronnow's chest and then against the post. The Bernabéu smelled blood and the duel leaned towards the German networks.

On the left, Alaba appeared on the back line after a pass from Bellingham and Joselu was about to score the first. The striker, who was unlucky, hit the post with a header from Rodrygo's cross.. All in just five minutes of an unsuccessful Madrid siege.

Better after the break

Carletto then decided to move the tree, retire Camavinga and Tchouaméni and give his football to the feet of Kroos and the careers of Fede Valverde. It sounded logical. As much as the change of Fran García, who came in for Nacho to give access to the left zone of the local attack. Madrid needed to break lines with and without the ball to achieve the three points.

The point was golden for Unión Berlin in its debut in the competition and at the home of the group's most important rival, but Madrid called history and Bellingham came to the rescue with a goal in the 94th minute after a corner was rejected. The Englishman, who produces goals as if he had been winning at the Bernabéu all his life, is the new hero of a stand that only knows one way to win. This.

A decade later, Real celebrated their return to the Champions League with a colossal performance against Inter. A real bathroom that, football things, finally ended in a draw. Lautaro's goal in the final stretch froze the spirits of the San Sebastian fans, still stunned by so many missed opportunities. But the top tournament never forgives those who get distracted. In the Champions League, successful finishing is as important as defensive inattention. And no concessions can be made to a rival with that shield.. [Narrative and statistics (1-1)]

For 75 minutes, the txuri-urdin conviction contrasted with the ineffectiveness of an unrecognizable Inter. Almost immediately, Real was able to go up 3-0, although Brais didn't hit Sommer in the first instance and Barrenetxea's left-footed shot was spit out by the post.. Until a blatant mistake by Bastoni at the start was taken advantage of by Brais to the delirium of the REALE Arena.

The last Champions League finalist, one of the fittest teams in Europe, was swallowed up unceremoniously. Real always found a free man, driven by Zubimendi and Merino, with the industriousness of Oyarzabal and the subtleties of Kubo, who left the score 2-0 in the head of Le Normand, without the conviction that the gift deserved.. It was a miracle that Inter reached the break with a narrow defeat.

Merino, to the crossbar

With Lautaro out of circulation and the visiting indolence insulting, the second half continued.. Barella saw a direct red card for a stomp on Brais' crotch, but the protests took their toll on Michael Oliver, who changed his opinion after consulting the VAR monitor.. Almost immediately, Kubo took a corner kick right where Merino was waiting, whose fierce header hit the crossbar..

Pippo Inzaghi, unhinged in the technical area, could not even count a well-directed shot towards Remiro. When it arrived, in a beautiful action between Alexis Sánchez and Carlos Augusto on the left, Thuram's shot into the net was disallowed for offside.. However, in the last round of changes, realistic fortunes had begun to turn.. The wear and tear, after more than an hour of suffocating pressure in the rival field, took its toll.

With a quarter of an hour left, Real needed strength to achieve what they had so deserved; to accelerate the advance of the clock and not to play anything; to stop Dimarco's runs or Dumfries' push with fouls. But she didn't know how to impose that football, with which she now doesn't feel identified.. When Inter began to believe that they could scratch something, it was already too late. A misguided shot by Frattesi was read by Lautaro before the center backs. Without competitive ground you will never get anywhere in the Champions League.

«¡Jude, Jude, Jude, Jude!». The Santiago Bernabéu cheered Bellingham when the new idol of the white coliseum looked at the stands and raised his arms, as if nailed to a cross, to the delirium of Chamartín. The midfielder (or so his technical sheet says) is the top scorer of the Spanish League and yesterday, in Real Madrid's debut in the Champions League, he gave his team the victory against Unión Berlin. He did it in the 94th minute, as if it were not necessary to explain Madrid's history in the European Cup. «He has quality, but he also has luck and the talent to be at the right time in the right place. When the rebound fell he was there to score. Him, not another, and that means he is smarter than others. “It's extraordinary,” Ancelotti praised him in the press room.

The Briton did not play his best game, but it was decisive, as in the entire start of Madrid's season.. He has accumulated six goals in six games and seems to have integrated perfectly into the locker room: “The teammates, the staff, the physios…. Everyone has received me very well. I'm normally a shy guy but I've adapted faster than I thought.. Every day I arrive with a smile on my face,” Bellingham admitted after the match.

A little further away, Tchouaméni, one of his best friends in the locker room, spoke wonderfully about him: “He is an incredible player.”. We are very happy to play with him. “Enjoy every minute, every training session and every game at the Bernabéu.”

Despite the victory, the French and the English suffered throughout the match due to the intensity and determination of Unión Berlin. Until the second half, Madrid's midfielders found it difficult to create chances: “We have been patient. We knew we would have chances at the end. It was a game to move the ball and get spaces and in the end we did it. “We showed a good mentality and a good drive to win,” said Bellingham, who jokingly acknowledged that it had not been his “most beautiful goal.”

The former Dortmund player does not want to set a goal figure, and neither is Ancelotti willing to pressure him in that regard, but he is clear that “I want to be a killer.”. «I don't have a goal, nor do I want one. I want to create chances, because that is what is going to give us victories. I hope to continue with the streak.”. Laughing, he assured that his Spanish goes “like this, like this.”

The lack of goal

In the press room, Ancelotti ruled out Vinicius against Atlético de Madrid and announced his return next Wednesday against Las Palmas. “He is one of the best strikers in the world,” the Italian replied when asked if he missed the Brazilian.. The reality is that Madrid has six wins in six games, but they are having a hard time finding the goal easily. «Joselu is doing well. And for Rodrygo these games are complicated because he is good in the open field. In a smaller space it has cost. He was unlucky, because he could have scored,” explained the coach.

The Brazilian, upset by his drought, declared that “it is a matter of time” before he scores. “We are having a hard time scoring more goals, but we have to keep trying,” he insisted, admitting that “I have many finishes.”. “Before I didn't have as many and I scored more and this season it's the other way around, but I'm calm as always because I know the goals are going to come,” he concluded.

Madrid starts with three points in a “trap game”, as Ancelotti defined it, who recalled the defeat against Sheriff on the second day of the Champions League 21-22. «Has the coach said that Manchester City is a favourite? “I'm going to have to talk to him,” Tchouaméni joked.

«I started to lose vision in my right eye in June 2015, during the San Juan festivities I saw a spot. They did tests on me and they couldn't find the reason until November when it also affected the other eye, then they did a genetic analysis and it turned out that I suffered from Leber optic neuropathy. It is a hereditary disease, but there were no cases in my family. In April 2016 I couldn't see anything anymore. I had just turned 18 and I didn't do anything, I didn't go to class, I was devastated. I was only encouraged by skateboarding. In fact, I forced myself to go outside, to use the cane, to go out with my friends because I wanted to skate again.

Marcelo Lusardi is 25 years old and is a skater. Born in Argentina, but emigrated as a child to Santiago de Compostela with his family, he makes a living from skating as he always dreamed of and, at the same time, as he never dreamed of. «When I was a child, skateboarding was my life. All my friends were skaters, I wore skate clothes, I watched skater videos, I played skate video games…. Now it's even more than that. Skateboarding made me reborn, it made me recover the enthusiasm for living,” confesses who has become a celebrity in the world.. With the nickname The blind skater, he has his own documentary on YouTube, more than 100,000 followers on Instagram – among them, Tony Hawk, the best skater in history -, he has participated in several exhibitions and has the support of brands from which lives. Between his disability pension and the ads, he doesn't need anything other than skateboarding.

But… How do you do it? I have the advantage of having seen and having skated with vision. Before I went blind I wasn't very good, but I already knew how to skateboard and do some basic tricks.. That helps me understand what's going on.. When I went blind I learned to walk and skate with a cane at the same time.. Now I make a mental map of all the elements that are in front of me and with the cane I feel. Although adapting was a slow process.

In fact, Lusardi thought he would never skate again.. When he began to lose his vision, at the age of 17, at ONCE they taught him how to use a cane, but he did not know that he could combine it with his passion.. «At first I tried it without a cane, without anything, and I was very scared. I remember the first time I jumped off a ramp, with all my friends next to me.. Or the first time I jumped a step. A friend yelled at me “Now!” and I did it, but it was very imprecise, very crazy,” he remembers about the process. Then came visual acuity, when he began to orient himself in the skate park through the noise of cars or the screams of children, tricks completed, skillful use of the stick, stairs, platforms or curbs overcome.

JAVIER SAAVEDRA

«Until one day I did a trick that I had not done when I saw. It was the host. “I can't imagine that: skating better when blind,” recalls Lusardi, the only blind skater in Europe or, at least, the only one known.. «Here in Spain I met a surfer, a blind boy, who took some skateboarding classes and competed with me. The experience was very cool. In the United States there are several, seven or eight, and they are even trying to do a tour together,” he says.

Would you like to compete? Skateboarding is now an Olympic sport and paraskate can be Paralympic. I would like to, of course, but it is difficult. I also already feel fulfilled. I appreciate what I do, I appreciate what life has put my way. I travel with my friends, I know new places to skate, and I feel a lot of love at exhibitions. I have met people who tell me that they have been moved, that they have cried.. When I made the documentary there was a little boom and now I just enjoy it.

In recent times, Lusardi has given several talks in schools and institutes in Galicia in which the message is clear: the obstacles are for jumping. «The children ask me if it is not dangerous to skate when blind and I answer that at most I get a scratch or a bruise. I like it if I am an example of something, although what I try to convey to them is that they take things calmly and that this is how even the most difficult thing ends up working out.. “It's a matter of desire,” Lusardi concludes before getting back on the skateboard that used to be his life and now is “even more than that.”

The women's team will travel to Sweden to play the first match of the Nations League with 21 of the 23 players who were called up on Monday by coach Montse Tomé. That was the agreement reached by the soccer players, with the presence of the president of their union, Futpro, and the RFEF with the mediation of the Higher Sports Council.

Only two players, Mapi León and Patri Guijarro, were called off and left the Oliva concentration because they were not in a mental state to continue.. Both were already part of the group of The 12 that refused to go to the World Cup in Australia. “It is a reality that the situation for Patri and me is different from the rest of the colleagues. There have been no ways or forms to return. This is a process. “We are happy because some changes are taking place,” said León.. They will be replaced by two players that Tomé will call in the next few hours.

The decision was announced by the president of the CSD, Víctor Francos, at five in the morning at the doors of the Valencian resort. “We have had very cordial meetings, with a very friendly and constructive tone in which the players have expressed themselves freely, and we have reached agreements that will be drawn up and signed tomorrow,” Francos said.

The first of them is to create a “mixed tripartite commission that will ensure compliance with the agreements that have to do, in the case of the CSD, with the development of the Sports Law.”

The second is that the RFEF will make a series of changes that it will announce in the next few hours and that entail the departure of personnel from the federative structure and the replica for the environment of the men's team for the women's team, as confirmed by the president of the commission of women's soccer, Rafael Del Amo.

Among these changes, although he did not ratify it, will also be the dismissal of the general secretary, Andreu Camps.. These agreements satisfy the Government and also the players, as stated by the president of Futpro, Amanda Gutiérrez, who considered them “the beginning of an understanding” that will end the open gap.

Until this agreement was reached, there were meetings of more than six hours with the 23 soccer players, 15 of them World Champions, first with Víctor Francos, who was joined by representatives of the RFEF, and then only them with the coaching staff that headed by Montse Tomé.

Víctor Francos, president of the CSD, and Rafael del Amo, president of the RFEF Women's Football Committee. DAVID OLLER ARABA PRESS

They told the CSD that they were in this concentration, to which they arrived tired, tense and very serious, forced under the threat of sanction and received the support of Francos, who considered the attitude of the RFEF “unacceptable” and made the president see of the Women's Committee, Rafael Del Amo, and the director of soccer, Ana Álvarez, who had to allow those players who wished to leave the concentration.. But they wanted a written guarantee that they would not be penalized for it.

To avoid the disbandment, led by the Barça footballers, who were accompanied to Oliva by two club directors, the RFEF announced to them that it was moving and was beginning to implement the changes they demanded in their statement last Friday.. The departure, now complete, of Rubiales and Jorge Vilda and the remodeling of the presidential cabinet will be joined in the next few hours by the dismissal of the general secretary, Andreu Camps, and the head of the Integrity department, Miguel García Caba.. The changes in communication materialized, for the moment, in the absence of the four-person team that accompanies the women's team from the concentration.. They went to Oliva but did not even set foot in the Oliva Nova resort.
For some players, the changes announced, but not executed, could be enough, but not for all. In fact, Del Amo acknowledged that he had “perceived a certain division” between them.

At one in the morning, the meeting with Francos and the RFEF ended. In fact, the president of the CSD was seen on the phone at the door of the hotel and chatted in the hall with Del Amo. Meanwhile, the players returned to a room to meet with Tomé and his assistants. They had a lot to say to each other, especially the international ones wanted to know why he put them in this situation and why he said he had spoken to them if he didn't do it with all of them.
Despite the fear that the players would not support the coach, the RFEF was quick to leak that her position was never in danger.

At 3:36 in the morning, Tomé left the meeting and Amanda Gutiérrez, from the Futpro union, joined to advise the players and unify positions.
After a horrible day, the solution does not seem to make the team stronger. In fact, the exhaustion of the grotesque trips, the impossibility of training and the fact that on Thursday they have to travel to Gothenburg make the match against Sweden a danger.