2023-05-17 22:17:01
The Portuguese scored twice in the Champions League semi-final return against Real Madrid (4-0) on Wednesday night.
Jack Grealish, Erling Haaland, Kevin de Bruyne … The danger came from everywhere for the people of Madrid, overwhelmed on the lawn of Manchester City in the semi-final return of the Champions League, Wednesday May 17 (4-0). However, without making noise, without being the fastest or the strongest, it was above all Bernardo Silva, untenable on his right side, who knocked out the Spanish rearguard. Making his intelligence speak, the Portuguese concretized the cityzen domination by scoring the first two Mancunian goals.
Completely alone, found by Kevin De Bruyne, the Portuguese first opened the scoring on the eighth shot in just 23 minutes for the Cityzens. Opportunistic and well placed, he then widened the gap, on a very subtly placed header out of reach from Thibaut Courtois and David Alaba (37th). “On the first goal, I see Alaba in front of me, and I think he’s going to want to cover the second post, so I shoot at the first. Then on the second, I said to myself that Alaba will jump for the first time but that if I put the ball in slowly, he won’t have the momentum to jump a second time”he analyzes after the match, at the microphone of Canal +, the gray cells still in turmoil.
“He understands the game”
By his catches of the ball and his ball breakthroughs, the former Monegasque sometimes made Eduardo Camavinga dance and took advantage of the freedom left by the opposing defenders. Enough to catch up with his average match in the first leg. “My performance in Madrid was not what I would have liked and I wanted to compensate for that, because I blamed myself after the first leg.“, he reacted to the microphone of BT Sports.
As a man of great nights, Bernardo Silva has scored his last nine Champions League goals in knockout matches. “He’s one of the best players I’ve coached in my life. He’s special. Bernardo is such an important player in these type of games, he can play in midfield, false 9, he scored recently many goalscommented his coach, Pep Guardiola, after the Mancunian victory in the quarter-final first leg against Bayern Munich (1-0). You can ask him to play in such a position, he understands everything… Bernardo is a footballer. What does it mean ? He will play everywhere because he understands the game. Bernardo has the ability to read it.”.
The Portuguese is so essential for his coach that he has played all six knockout games this season in the Champions League, without ever being replaced. However, the precious midfielder does not close the door to a departure from the Mancunian club. “I’m 28, I’ll be 29 this summer, and I have two years left on my contract with Manchester City. My contract would end at 31. I do not hide from you that my objective in the years to come, if something good happens elsewhere, will probably be to leave for a new project”, he declared in the columns of the Portuguese newspaper Record, in January. Rumors echo an interest from PSG, but questioned on the subject by Canal + on Wednesday evening, Bernardo Silva remained evasive: “We will see what will happen”.
1684382498
#discreet #instinctive #Bernardo #Silva #turns #scorer #big #nights