Vinicius’ role on the field.
Without much success in the first part, it was difficult for him to overwhelm Thierry until he succeeded with one of his classic tricks, but then it got dark, with hardly any angle. With the passing of the minutes and seeing that things were not working out for him, he got into useless battles and arbitration claims that did him no good. And yet, he had 2-1 on his feet and avoided overtime: one-on-one, Mamardashvili narrowed the gap. At the start of extra time he had it again, this time with a shot placed from the edge before which Mamardashvili also stopped him with a stretch to the limit.
Karim Benzema did everything to win
He had a good first half, constantly going down to receive and exchanging positions with Vinicius to create space. He made it 1-0 on his own: good clearance against Militao’s long pass and Comert’s penalty, which he converted by deceiving Mamardashvili. After the 1-1, he cooked up a good play, but did not shoot when he touched and missed the opportunity. In the second half he was able to avoid extra time with a header from Valverde’s cross that would have made it 2-1; he went high. He went down with the passing of the minutes; he is still not 100% and it shows. He scored his penalty in the shootout, which is always difficult after having already taken one in the game.