In the early morning of May 5, Beijing time, the second leg of the 2021-22 Champions League semi-final: Real Madrid hosted Manchester City. In the first leg, Real Madrid lost 3-4 away to Manchester City, this time at the Bernabeu, Real Madrid must win, and have to win by 2 goals to turn the tables to advance.
Real Madrid can knock all the way to the present in the quarter-finals and quarter-finals, and the number one contributor is Benzema. But Karim Benzema's goal alone may not be enough to turn over the mighty Manchester City.
In the first leg and second leg of the quarter-finals, all of Real Madrid's goals scored by Benzema alone.
In the second leg of the quarter-finals, Chelsea pulled the aggregate score into a 3:3 draw in the 51st minute, and in the 75th minute, with Werner's goal, Chelsea surpassed the aggregate score of 4:3, and if it ended with this score, it was Real Madrid who was overturned. In the 80th minute, Modric's miraculous outside instep assisted, Rodrigo scored, and Real Madrid pulled the aggregate score to a 4:4 draw, pulling Real Madrid back from the edge of the cliff. Without Rodrigo's timely goal, there would have been no Benzema's final extra-time kill, because without Rodrigo's goal, Real Madrid would have been eliminated in regular time.
Ancelotti rarely rotates, in the forward trident, center Benzema, winger Vinicius is not moving, the other winger is not fixed, Rodrigo, Ascensio, Valverde and so on have a chance. Rodrigo is often used as a "bench" and often plays a key role. For example, in the first round of the Champions League group stage away to The Guinea-M.
In recent times, Rodrigo has played the momentum of Vinicius this season in La Liga, becoming an important contributor to Real Madrid's early la Liga title.
In the 32nd round of La Liga, Real Madrid beat Sevilla 3-2 away to make Barca, who shouted the slogan of the title, desperate to fight, and in the case of falling behind 0:2, it was Rodrigo's goal that sounded the horn of Real Madrid's reversal. In addition to a goal, Rodrigo had an assist.
In the 34th round of La Liga, Real Madrid played at home against Espanyol, winning can win the championship early, even if it loses, the championship will only be won sooner or later. In order to cope with the second leg of the Champions League semi-final against Manchester City, Ancelotti, who does not like rotation, also made a big rotation, with Benzema, Vinicius and Valverde sitting on the bench, and Mariano, Asensio and Rodrigo forming a forward trident.
In the 33rd and 44th minutes, Rodrigo scored twice to help Real Madrid lead espanyol 2:0, basically killing espanyol's motivation to counterattack.
In his last five games for Real Madrid, Rodrigo has scored four goals, equalling the previous 79 goals for Real Madrid. Like Vinicius at the beginning of the season, scoring one goal in the Western Super Cup equalized the number of goals scored in 118 games for Real Madrid in the previous three seasons (15 goals).
At home to Manchester City, must we win the battle, will Carlo Ancelotti let Rodrigo, who has been in great form in the near future, start? At least the players don't see it that way. Journalist Lucas Navarrete revealed that everyone in the Real Madrid dressing room thinks Valverde will start and Rodrigo plays as a substitute.