After ninety minutes, the referee blew the final whistle three times, bringing the match at the Bernabéu to an end.
Real Madrid defeated Bayern Munich 2–0.
Across the two legs, Madrid eliminated Bayern with a 7–1 aggregate score and successfully reached the Champions League final, where their opponent would be the Premier League giants, Manchester City.
Three days later, on May 14, Real Madrid traveled to the Nuevo Los Cármenes Stadium to face Granada.
In this match, Theodore Bjorn only played the first forty-five minutes.
Granada were a team fighting near the relegation zone, so for most of the match, they focused entirely on defense.
Almost every player retreated into their own half, and the entire team clearly understood the gap in strength between themselves and Madrid.
Trying to defeat the all-conquering Real Madrid at home was close to impossible, so Granada's main goal that night was to force a draw.
If they could take even one point from Madrid, they would already be more than satisfied.
Unfortunately for them, Theodore did not allow that plan to succeed.
In the first forty-five minutes, Theodore earned a total of four shooting chances, and without exception, every one of those shots turned into a goal.
A one hundred percent conversion rate.
Real Madrid, playing away from home, defeated Granada precisely because of Theodore's four goals.
...
On May 17, Madrid traveled to San Mamés for the 37th round of La Liga against Athletic Bilbao.
Considering Athletic Bilbao's strength, Zidane sent out his strongest lineup.
In the first half, Athletic Bilbao relied on their home advantage, frantic pressing, and tireless running to stubbornly hold Madrid to a draw.
However, just five minutes after the second half began, Madrid finally displayed their true strength.
Benzema received a left-footed cross from Ødegaard inside the box and threw himself forward with a diving header, successfully breaking through the goal guarded by Unai Simón.
Real Madrid led 1–0.
After Madrid took the lead, Zidane did not ask his players to continue attacking aggressively.
Instead, he instructed them to slow the rhythm through controlled passing in the back line.
For Madrid, maintaining the winning streak was enough.
They did not want to spend too much energy fighting Athletic Bilbao to the bitter end, especially with the most important matches of the season still ahead.
On top of that, Athletic Bilbao had already secured fifth place in the league.
Even if they beat Madrid, they could no longer improve their ranking. After all, this was the penultimate round of La Liga, and Athletic were a full seven points behind fourth-placed Valencia.
Even if they won both of their remaining matches, they could only gain six points, which meant there would still be a one-point gap between them and Valencia.
Zidane understood Athletic's situation very well.
In his view, Athletic's players would probably lose their desire to fight once the match moved deeper into the second half.
But the Basque warriors clearly did not want to lose at home.
Athletic Bilbao suddenly raised the tempo.
In the 65th minute, midfielder Dani García played a through ball that successfully found Iñaki Williams up front.
The Ghanaian forward was extremely strong physically.
Inside Madrid's penalty area, Iñaki Williams forcibly knocked Nacho aside before smashing a powerful shot past Courtois.
1–1!
Athletic Bilbao had actually equalized at home.
"Athletic Bilbao are level!" Rob Palmer called. "Iñaki Williams uses his strength brilliantly, shrugs Nacho aside, and finishes with real power."
"That is exactly what Madrid did not want," Terry Gibson said. "They thought they could control the game after going ahead, but Athletic have suddenly raised the intensity, and Madrid's defenders were caught off guard."
"One-one at San Mamés," Rob continued. "Real Madrid will have to step up again if they want to keep this winning run alive."
On the touchline, Zidane immediately issued the order to attack.
After the restart, Madrid's players began to show their power.
Benzema kicked off and passed the ball to Modrić in midfield at the first opportunity. Modrić quickly looked up and sent a long pass toward Vinícius on the left flank.
Then Vinícius began to accelerate.
As Madrid's flying winger, whenever Vinícius received the ball in space, his first instinct was almost always to attack his marker directly.
In an instant, he used his pace to force his way past De Marcos.
After beating the opposing full-back, Vinícius already had a chance to pass, but he clearly had no intention of doing that.
He chose to keep dribbling.
At that moment, Vinícius raced toward the top of Athletic Bilbao's penalty arc like a streak of black lightning, clearly preparing to cut inside and shoot.
Athletic Bilbao's two midfielders, Dani García and Vencedor, saw through his intention.
Both of them launched into flying tackles toward Vinícius, and before he could complete his shot, the two Athletic players brought him down.
"Beep!"
The referee quickly blew his whistle and showed Dani García a yellow card.
However, Madrid also suffered a heavy loss.
Vinícius lay on the ground with a pained expression, and the team doctor immediately entered the pitch to treat him.
After a brief examination, it became clear that he could not continue.
Zidane had no choice but to replace Vinícius with Rodrygo.
According to the team doctor's initial judgment, Vinícius would need at least a month to recover from the injury, which meant he would most likely miss the Champions League final against Manchester City.
After learning how serious the injury was, Vinícius could not stop himself from shedding tears after returning to the bench.
His injury immediately created a chain reaction for Madrid.
For the rest of the match, Madrid's starters no longer dared to attack actively or make forceful movements.
They were afraid of being injured by Athletic Bilbao's rough tackles and missing the Champions League final.
Because of that, during the final twenty minutes, the entire Real Madrid team played with hesitation and could not fully show the strength they should have had.
Before long, the match had reached the final five minutes.
The score was still 1–1.
Theodore, who had been quiet for most of the match, finally prepared to step up.
When the other Madrid players no longer dared to attack with full force, Theodore resolutely took on the responsibility of leading the offense himself.
As Real Madrid's number ten and the core of the team's attack, he understood that this was the moment when he needed to carry the team forward.
In the 88th minute, Theodore dropped deep into the back line on his own initiative and reached out to ask Militão for the ball.
Seeing that, Militão passed the ball to him almost without thinking.
Inside San Mamés, boos from tens of thousands of Athletic Bilbao fans instantly echoed into the sky.