Legendary goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel has claimed that Real Madrid did not deserve to progress to the final of the UEFA Champions League after their showing against Manchester City.
Schmeichel, who played for both Manchester City and Manchester United in his playing days, was on pundot duty with CBS Sports. The Dane gave a scathing review of Los Blancos after they came back from two goals down to win 6-5 on aggregate and set up a final against Liverpool.
Manchester City went into the game with a 4-3 lead and after a first half of little goalmouth action but complete control of the ball and defensive solidity from Real Madrid, the Cityzens broke the deadlock in the 73rd minute.
Riyad Mahrez’s goal extended their lead to two goals and it looked like City were headed to their second final in a row until two late goals from Madrid teenager Rodrygo Goes and a penalty in extra time work and dispatched by Karim Benzema knocked City out.
Schmeichel, talked about his former side’s unluckiness by stating that Madrid were the poorer of the two sides and deserved not to progress to the final of this season’s tournament.
“The first chance was the first goal in the 90th minute, the second goal was the second chance and the third goal was the third time they hit the target,” Schmeichel told CBS Sports.
“Real Madrid have got no right to be in that final. They were the poorest team by a mile over the two games. Man City were in full control but it’s that one moment we talked about that. We talked about how that stadium in there could be the 12th man.
“When they started that second half, that chance after just eight seconds it was like they set the whole place on fire and it was just unbelievable.
“I feel a little bit sorry for Manchester City, I have to say that because I thought apart from that goal in the 90th minute they played really well, they had everything under control.
“Rodri in midfield was awesome tonight and I’m not going to criticise anything, but if you lose a player like Kevin De Bruyne and the game turns out in the way it does then you miss him in that last 30 minutes and was sorely missed.
“But I mean my God! Real Madrid where does that come from I have absolute no idea. They didn’t play well.
“Predicting this Champions League has been very, very difficult. I had Bayern Munich winning it and they got knocked out in the quarter finals.
“I did think Real Madrid would go into the final because of the situation in England but they were so poor. Only the game at Chelsea was good. I don’t understand anything about football any more.”
It was the third act of escapism that the 13-time champions had pulled in this season’s tournament knock out rounds. Following a 1-0 loss to Paris Saint-Germain in the round of 16 at the Santiago Bernabeu, they clawed their way back to a 3-1 victory at Parc De Princes to seal a 3-2 aggregate win.
In the quarter finals, Chelsea had them on the ropes after clawing back to a 4-4 aggregate scoreline at the Santiago Bernabeu, until a late second goal from Benzema won the tie for Los Blancos.
It remains to be seen how they will fare against Liverpool with the final only being a one-legged affair.
