Real Madrid manager José Mourinho insists Inter's errors against Los Blancos flowed directly from the pressure his players applied. Luck, he argues, is no random stroke. It appears when you are ready to seize the chance at the right moment of the match.
Football, according to the Spanish newspaper "AS", does not run on mathematical calculations. Nothing guarantees that combining specific factors will always produce the same outcome.
Sometimes it comes down to luck, and some see it as nothing more than an event or a string of random occurrences beyond human control, favourable or otherwise.
But this sport does not always work that way. Luck is not simply a chance stroke. It is a moment in which preparation meets opportunity at the right time of the match, exactly what surfaced when Real Madrid met Inter last Tuesday.
Real Madrid led on the scoreboard despite Inter's control of the match when the 23rd minute produced a Josep Martínez blunder. It revived what has become almost routine for Real Madrid in the Champions League: an opposing goalkeeper's mistake ending in a goal.
Trying to dribble past Valverde, the Inter goalkeeper got in a muddle with the ball. The Uruguayan midfielder toed it home to make it 2-0.
The first goal had come minutes earlier. Effective pressure from Mbappé forced an error out of Bisseck, and the French striker pounced to open the scoring.
Mourinho prefers to attribute the opponents' mistakes to the work his players do, saying: "The players did a wonderful job, and they won in difficult circumstances. I want to give credit to my team's players, for pressing is trained, and likewise the triggers that must be pressed while pressing are trained. We don't only want criticism, for we did some things well."
The impact of pressing
None of this was new for Mourinho. During his first spell on the Real Madrid bench, the Portuguese had already learned what it meant to have luck on his side in Europe's biggest club competitions.
Take the second leg of the 2010-2011 Champions League quarter-final against Tottenham. Cristiano Ronaldo unleashed a powerful shot from long range, from almost the halfway line, and Tottenham goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes misjudged the trajectory, letting it slip through his hands and into his own net.
A year later, in the group stage, Mesut Özil's attempt to clear or intercept a low pass across the pitch ended with Olympique Lyon goalkeeper Hugo Lloris steering the ball into his own goal.
Since the 2007-2008 season, Real Madrid have profited from 30 goalkeeper mistakes that ended in goals in the Champions League.
Not all of them stemmed from pressing, but the list includes some of the biggest moments, such as Karim Benzema's goal against Liverpool and Karius in the 2018 Champions League final.
Mourinho knows this side of the game is essential, which is why he drills it into his players. Against Inter, they proved that luck can be trained too.
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