2022-23 Champions League (Semifinals)

1st leg 

Real Madrid 1-1Manchester City

Man City dominated possession in the 1st half and slowly built to getting decent rips on the goal but Madrid's D seemed sturdy enough to keep them out. Meanwhile, though Real seemingly barely touched the ball, their breakaways generated some nice looks and not long before the half, Vini was able to rip one from about 25 yards out (nice!) that found the goal. I expected the 1-0 lead to hold up but Man City was able to get the equalizer (a lovely rip from 25 yards out by De Bruyne). Good game, thought Real was probably the better side but the game ended tied, so the second leg has all the makings for an old timey barnburner. 

AC Milan 0-2 Inter Milan

Inter blitzed AC in the first 10 minutes, netting two goals, another shot off the post and a point blank whiff that would've made an incredibly deep hole for the home side. The two goals held up because after that neither team could maintain any control of the game. Not a bad game, certainly not boring, but the last 80 minutes or so were rather uneventful.

2nd leg

Inter Milan 1-0 (3-0) AC Milan

AC Milan had more confident possessions, but Inter was more dangerous around the goal all the way through. They finally broke through around the 70th minute and that was pretty much it. AC Milan never got anything going in this match. But outside of 10 minutes of brutal dominance in the 1st leg, Inter was so casual that its hard to tell how good they actually are. Well, they're into the Final so you gotta give them a puncher's chance at least. 

Manchester City 3-0 (4-1) Real Madrid

Wow, what a thrashing! Real Madrid just never had the ball, they could not get the ball forward to Benzema and Vini, both of whom were virtually invisible for 90 minutes. Man City dominated--DOMINATED--possession early on, peppered the goal routinely, felt like it was just a matter of time before they connected on a corner but they didn't even need it. Bernardo slipped the back line, received the nifty pass and finished strong, then a little later on was the beneficiary of chaos in the box and was able to head one home before the half. There was still a sliver of a chance that Real was gonna make the 2nd half a game but they just couldn't maintain possession. When Man City connected on a free kick (an own-goal technically) around the 70th minute was the end of it. 

Final

Inter Milan - Manchester City

My gut tells me that Man City is going to control the ball and get a lot more opportunities around the goal. That doesn't mean they'll win but seems like that offense is more consistent and dangerous. I managed to watch hardly any of Inter's matches (missed 2nd legs against Porto and Benfica), so I don't have a real feel for this side. But they rolled AC Milan, so I'm assuming they don't suck, but I still don't have any grasp on this team. Gotta go with Man City, though I'm ready to be pleasantly surprised.