Before a ball had even been kicked, Christoph Kramer drew a hard line between the Bayern Munich of now and the Real Madrid of yesterday.
On Prime Video, the former World Cup winner spoke less like a neutral pundit and more like a man convinced he had seen this story before. For him, the decisive chapters belonged to Toni Kroos, Luka Modric and Thibaut Courtois – and all three, in very different ways, are missing from this tie.
“They won’t win another big game”
Kramer started with a reminder of what made the old Real so dangerous. Not the running. Not the pressing. The control.
“Real Madrid have always had players who didn’t cover as much ground. Top teams like Bayern Munich take control of the game,” he said, pointing back to those long European nights where opponents seemed to have Madrid pinned, only for Kroos and Modric to quietly twist the knife.
“It was Kroos and Modric who turned the game back in their favour. And suddenly a match that seemed unbeatable is turned on its head.”
That, in his eyes, is the crucial difference now. Those two are no longer under contract with the Spanish giants. The safety net has gone.
Without them, Kramer believes Bayern’s structure and relentlessness give the German champions a clear edge.
“They no longer have those two players, and that’s why I believe Real Madrid will find themselves in a sort of vicious circle today. Bayern will play wave after wave and they simply won’t be able to break free.”
He didn’t stop there. Despite acknowledging the quality in Madrid’s attack, he dismissed the idea that the current crop can bend a game to their will in the same way.
“Although Real still have a strong line-up, particularly in attack, these players cannot decide a match on their own,” Kramer insisted. “I said this a year and a half ago: with all the top stars they have, Real Madrid won’t win another big game, and I still stand by that statement.”
For a club built on the mythology of big European nights, it was a striking verdict.
Hummels backs Kramer – and points to Courtois
Sitting alongside him, Mats Hummels didn’t just nod along. He went all in.
There was, he said, “100 per cent” agreement with Kramer’s assessment, but the Borussia Dortmund defender steered the conversation towards another pillar of Madrid’s recent dominance: Thibaut Courtois.
“A decisive factor in recent years has simply been Thibaut Courtois, who has won them so many matches and titles here,” Hummels said. In a team stuffed with Ballon d’Or contenders and global superstars, he felt the Belgian’s influence had slipped under the radar.
“He hasn’t received enough credit for that. I’d say he’s single-handedly decided at least two finals, plus matches in the rounds leading up to them.”
This time, the absence is not contractual but physical. Courtois is still a Real Madrid player, but a muscle tear rules him out of both Champions League clashes with Bayern. For a side already stripped of Kroos and Modric, losing the goalkeeper who repeatedly bailed them out on the biggest stage feels like another layer peeled away.
In his place stands Andriy Lunin, the long-serving deputy finally thrust into the spotlight. Hummels chose his words carefully, but the gap he sees between the two keepers is clear.
“Lunin isn’t a bad goalkeeper, but he doesn’t have that quality. A goalkeeper who keeps you in the game is worth so much.”
That line hung in the air. Bayern, a team built to suffocate opponents, now face a Real Madrid side without the metronomes who calmed storms in midfield and without the giant in goal who so often stood alone between survival and collapse.
If Kramer and Hummels are right, this isn’t just another heavyweight tie. It’s a test of whether the new Real Madrid can still bend Europe to their will without the three men who so often dragged them through the fire.
