MADRID — Sometimes that famous Bernabéu magic isn’t quite enough.

Real Madrid have had so many great UEFA Champions League nights at this stadium, beating often superior teams in frequently inexplicable circumstances. But in Tuesday’s 1-2 loss to Bayern Munich, reality caught up with them, the comeback just out of reach.

Playing against a talented, confident, fluid Bayern team, Madrid spent the first hour looking quite ordinary. The visitors were superior, more than the game’s scoreline suggested. But as the second half went on, the dynamic slowly but surely changed. Madrid began to create a steady stream of chances, Vinícius Júnior and Kylian Mbappé getting ever closer.

When Mbappé did, eventually, pull a goal back in the 74th minute, the Bernabéu crowd, cautiously hopeful, found their voices, as Madrid pushed for more. But the equalizer never materialized, thanks largely to Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer and his outstanding nine saves.

By the final whistle, both teams had had 20 shots, creating similar numbers of chances (15-14 in Madrid’s favor, with three of Madrid’s classed by Opta as “big chances” compared with Bayern’s two), although Bayern’s xG (expected goals) of 2.99 comfortably outstripped Madrid’s 1.97.

A one-goal margin means the tie is open as the teams head to Munich for next week’s return leg. “We’re alive,” coach Álvaro Arbeloa repeated several times postmatch.

“We could have scored more,” Real Madrid goalkeeper Andriy Lunin said afterward. “The team reacted well. Neuer was the MVP.”

Antonio Rüdiger agreed: “The best player was Neuer.”

Still, the feeling for much of this game was that Arbeloa’s team had found its level, its few strengths, and more weaknesses, exposed in the Champions League spotlight, against elite opposition.

Vincent Kompany’s Bayern dominated from the start, with two great chances to score: one from Dayot Upamecano, whose miss-hit, close-range shot was cleared off the line by Álvaro Carreras, and another from Serge Gnabry, who couldn’t take advantage of Thiago Pitarch‘s misplaced pass, which left him in on goal facing Lunin. Eventually, they went ahead through Luis Díaz, finishing off a cleverly worked move involving Harry Kane and Gnabry, in the 41st minute.

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Kane’s goal to make it 0-2, just 20 seconds into the second half, made the comeback feel even more distant. Arbeloa’s halftime team talk must surely have involved Madrid starting aggressively, with intensity, taking the game to Bayern.

Instead, they were alarmingly passive: Vinícius played a poor pass to Carreras, under pressure, who gave away possession cheaply. As Vinícius and Mbappé jogged back toward their own goal, Bayern worked the ball up to Kane, totally unattended outside the box, to stroke the ball past Lunin.

“We made two mistakes [for the goals],” Arbeloa said. “We lost the ball twice. We have to avoid that. Against these teams if you make mistakes, you pay for it.”

It was in the last half-hour that Madrid were at their most dangerous, Bayern tiring in their press, as the home side enjoyed more space to run into.

Three good chances came in seven minutes, just after the hour. First, Vinícius, played in by Upamecano’s weak header, tried to round Neuer, was forced wide and was unable to get his shot back on target. Then Mbappé went close twice, denied once by Neuer, before shooting across the face of goal shortly afterward. Mbappé kept going.

“That’s the Mbappé we want to see,” Arbeloa said. “He was a constant threat.”

More threat came when Trent Alexander-Arnold got on the ball. His deliveries from the right had looked like one of Madrid’s most promising routes toward goal all night, and now he crossed for Mbappé, whose far-post shot crept over the line after being initially saved by Neuer.

As Madrid pushed for a second goal, there was danger, too, at the other end. Three times in the last minutes of the game, Bayern could have finished off the tie. Substitute Éder Militão — who improved Madrid significantly when he was introduced — blocked a cross bound for the six-yard box, before Bayern went close twice more, in the 89th and 91st minutes, wasting one three-on-one break.

Madrid’s task for the second leg in Munich next week will be made harder by the absence of their most consistent player this season, Aurélien Tchouaméni, who will be suspended and has no natural replacement in midfield.

They will have to be bold, and play on the front foot, an approach alien to a team that has been more comfortable with a more conservative, deep block style.

“If any team can win in Munich, it’s Real Madrid,” Arbeloa insisted in his postmatch news conference. They might.

Madrid could still produce something extraordinary and unexpected in Germany, as they have before. In Vinicius, Mbappé, Jude Bellingham and Federico Valverde, they have the players who make it possible.

But even with a much-improved last half-hour here, what they did at the Bernabéu wasn’t sufficient. They’ll need to do more in Munich, and in reaching for that, will also be more vulnerable.

The 19-team field for the 2026 NCAA national collegiate women’s bowling championship is down to four clubs. Jacksonville State, Wichita State, Vanderbilt and Arkansas State will compete for the title this week at Yorktown Lanes in Parma Heights, Ohio. The champion will be determined using best-of-seven Baker match play, with the championship match airing on ESPNU.

Here are key facts about the 2026 NCAA national collegiate women’s bowling championship:

How can fans watch?

Fans can catch all of the action in the ESPN App and in the NCAA streaming hub.

What is the schedule?

*All times Eastern

April 10

Semifinals

9 a.m.: Match 1 – No. 1 Jacksonville State vs. No. 4 Wichita State,

9 a.m.: Match 2 – No. 2 Vanderbilt vs. No. 3 Arkansas State

3 p.m.: Match 3 – Match 1 winner vs. Match 2 winner

3 p.m.: Match 4 – Match 1 loser vs. Match 2 loser

April 11

Finals

9 a.m.: Match 5 – Match 4 winner vs. Match 3 loser

6:30 p.m.: Final – Match 3 winner vs. Match 5 winner on ESPNU

Recent NCAA women’s bowling champions

2025: Youngstown State

2024: Jacksonville State

2023: Vanderbilt

2022: McKendree

2021: Nebraska

How can fans access more college sports coverage from ESPN?

Check out the ESPN college sports hub page for the latest news, analysis, features, scores, rankings and more.

President Donald Trump’s threat against Iran on Tuesday has prompted reactions from three Iranian athletes.

Trump wrote on Truth Social, “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” in reference to Iran amid his threats to target the nation’s power plants and bridges.

Former Iranian youth wrestling champion Sardar Pashaei, who now lives in the U.S., responded to Trump’s threat in a statement to Fox News Digital.

“The Iranian regime still has a chance—and all the means necessary—to stop sacrificing its own people and bring an end to this 47-year catastrophe. It has had many opportunities in the past. Instead, it chose repression at home and conflict abroad. Today, the regime is effectively holding the Iranian people hostage, placing civilians in danger while claiming to act in their interest,” Pashaei said.

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“For decades, it has destroyed Iran’s natural resources, built tunnels deep into mountains for missiles, and spent the country’s wealth on drones and war—not on the wellbeing of its people. Above all, we must be clear: the Iranian people must never be the target of pressure or punishment. They have already suffered for decades under this regime.

“Responsibility for this crisis lies with the clerical establishment and the IRGC. For decades, chants of ‘Death to America’ and ‘Death to Israel’ have been driven by the regime—not by the Iranian people, who have instead sought dignity, opportunity, and a normal life, yet have never been given a real choice through free and fair elections. The regime has already lost—both at home and on the global stage. The only remaining question is how much more suffering it will impose before it finally steps aside.”

TRUMP REVEALS IRAN MADE ‘SIGNIFICANT PROPOSAL’ AFTER ULTIMATUM, BUT ‘NOT GOOD ENOUGH’

Iranian competition climber Elnaz Rakabi, who won bronze at the 2021 IFSC Climbing World Championship, shared a different perspective in a statement provided to Fox News Digital.

“As an Iranian athlete, I cannot stay silent when language is used that speaks of the destruction of a nation as if millions of innocent lives are disposable. Any statement that suggests the collapse or destruction of Iran without recognizing the human cost is deeply dangerous. Iran is not just a regime. Iran is a people, a history, a civilization, and millions of human beings who have already endured decades of repression, fear, and suffering,” Rakabi said.

“At the same time, the world must not ignore the truth that the Islamic Republic has spent decades oppressing its own people, crushing peaceful protests, and investing the country’s wealth in ideology, militarization, and nuclear ambition instead of the wellbeing of its citizens.

“The people of Iran have repeatedly gone into the streets to demand freedom, dignity, justice, and the right to live a normal life, only to be met with bullets, prisons, executions, and fear. The Iranian people are not asking for violence. They are not asking for war. They are asking to be heard. They are asking for their country’s resources to be spent on life, not destruction. They are asking for peace, dignity, and the right to determine their own future.

“That is why the destruction of a nation can never be the answer. The people of Iran are not collateral damage. They are not bargaining chips in political rhetoric or international conflict. They are human beings. A peaceful and democratic change in Iran would not only serve the Iranian people, but also the cause of human rights, regional stability, and global peace. So I ask: Is it really so difficult for those in power to choose peace over ideology, human dignity over political interest, and innocent lives over yet another cycle of violence?”

After publication, Trump agreed to a ceasefire on Tuesday and to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for two weeks.

The move came after talks with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who urged Trump to delay any further U.S. military action while both sides continued to negotiate.

“This will be a double sided CEASEFIRE! The reason for doing so is that we have already met and exceeded all Military objectives, and are very far along with a definitive Agreement concerning Longterm PEACE with Iran, and PEACE in the Middle East,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump said he received a 10-point proposal from Iran, calling it a “workable basis on which to negotiate.”

“Almost all of the various points of past contention have been agreed to between the United States and Iran, but a two week period will allow the Agreement to be finalized and consummated,” he wrote.

Amir-Saeid Iravani, Iran’s permanent representative to the United Nations previously, rejecting a temporary ceasefire proposal and vowing “reciprocal measures.”

“Iran will not stand idle in the face of such egregious war crimes,” Iravani said. “It will exercise without hesitation its inherent right of self-defense, and will take immediate and proportionate reciprocal measures.”

Afsoon Roshanzamir Johnston, an Iranian women’s wrestler who competed for the U.S. and won a silver medal in the 1990 freestyle wrestling championships, later serving as a coach for Team USA at the 2016 Rio Olympics, said her “heart is heavy” after Trump’s threat. 

“My heart is heavy for the beautiful people of Iran. Having fled my homeland as a child of war, I know the brave people of Iran have endured decades of corruption and oppression under the Islamic regime. War is complicated, but I hope for a regime change, not the destruction of the beautiful Persian civilization and heritage,” she said. 

Iran has reportedly threatened to target energy facilities in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

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Tehran will add Saudi Aramco oil facilities, as well as Yanbu and the UAE’s Fujairah pipeline, to its target list should Trump follow through with his threats to attack Iran’s energy infrastructure, Iran International reported.

The threats from Iran were first reported by the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim news agency, citing a military source.

Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano contributed to this report.

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