MADRID — Imagine a mob of people, thousands of them in a pack, standing outside an old wooden door. First the mob takes turns banging on the door. Then the banging turns to kicking. And then the kicking turns to pounding as body after body, man after man, goes ramming forward and returns with little more than an aching shoulder.
That was the last 20 minutes of the Champions League semifinal on Wednesday night. Real Madrid, the defending European champion, needed a goal, another goal, however they could find it. Juventus, the Italian champion, needed only to avoid having its dreams kicked in.