After the grime, the glamour. And Madrid — which has dubbed itself the ‘Capital of Champions’ for the purposes of this week’s semi-finals — delivered something to match.
It was crammed with quality and pace. There were times when it flowed and pulsated, whereas Chelsea and Atletico had grunted and grappled 24 hours earlier.
There were times also when it became a little more disjointed and Karim Benzema scored the only goal to fuel the Real Madrid dream of a 10th European title and loosen Bayern Munich’s grip on the title.
But it could have been worse for the holders. Real had enough chances to have settled the tie and be booking their flights to the Champions League final for the first time since they won it in 2002.
Pep Guardiola seemed relieved to escape with only a 1-0 deficit and praised his team’s ‘personality’ but he claimed it was ‘impossible to control’ the counter-attacking power of Real for 90 minutes.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Angel di Maria were the most creative and at the same time the most wasteful players in white and these missed chances will nag away at them over the next six days. ‘We could have scored more,’ said Carlo Ancelotti. ‘We have a bit of an advantage and that’s it. We are going to suffer. We have to give everything we have.’
