After Real Madrid were thrashed 5-1 on aggregate by Arsenal in the Champions League quarter-finals, we take a look at a season that promised much but might deliver very little for Los Blancos.
“Remontada.”
That was Jude Bellingham’s answer in a pre-match press conference when asked what word he had heard most often in the Real Madrid dressing room ahead of their UEFA Champions League quarter-final second leg against Arsenal.
It means ‘comeback’ in Spanish. With Madrid 3-0 down from the first leg in London, but with the Santiago Bernabéu crowd behind them as well as the aura that comes with winning 15 European Cup/Champions League titles – more than twice as many as any other club – there was an understandable confidence around the camp.
“It’s a night that is made for Real Madrid,” Bellingham added. “You can’t come into games like this thinking there is going to be anything other than a comeback. There’s a pressure but that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?”
It would be wrong to say that neutrals and even some Arsenal fans hadn’t also convinced themselves that Madrid could do it. This is the Champions League, and whether they play well or not, Real Madrid always seem to find a way.
On this occasion, they did not find a way, or at any point even look like they particularly knew where the way was.
To watch their attempts at overcoming an organised and determined Arsenal in the Bernabéu on Wednesday was like watching a superhero movie where the hero doesn’t realise they’ve lost their powers until they fight the enemy and get easily swept aside as a result.
The hosts were only truly recognisable as Real Madrid by their iconic white kit. Their performance was anything but befitting of a team with such success in the competition, defending the trophy they won only last season, but doing so in such a meek fashion that Arsenal will likely have departed the Spanish capital saying: “Was that it?”
Arsenal ran out 2-1 winners on the night, thrashing Madrid 5-1 on aggregate. Mikel Arteta’s men kept their hosts at arm’s length all night long, never looking in much danger of even losing the second leg, let alone seeing Los Blancos overturn the three-goal aggregate deficit.
Huge credit must go to the Gunners, who qualified for a Champions League semi-final for the third time in their history after 2005-06 and 2008-09. But in truth, they mostly won by doing some basic defending and threatening on the counter. At no point did Arsenal look flustered or like they even needed to go above third gear, and they could even afford to see Bukayo Saka waste a penalty opportunity when he dinked the ball straight at Thibaut Courtois from the spot in the first half.
Courtois was arguably the only Madrid player to come out of the tie with any credit, and he told reporters afterwards: “I don’t think [Arsenal goalkeeper David] Raya had to make a single great save. We lost against a superior Arsenal and we have to accept it.
“In the end, they’re a team that defends well, is well organised, presses well, and it’s difficult to find space. We put in a lot of crosses, but this year we don’t have Joselu, a natural striker up front.
“We have to analyse carefully what we can do better.”
Courtois wasn’t wrong; Real Madrid put in a lot of crosses. They attempted 23 in the first half alone, their joint-most on record in the opening 45 of a Champions League home match since records began (2003-04). It was a strange tactic anyway against an aerially dominant side like Arsenal, but as Courtois said, Madrid not having a traditional number nine up front like last season’s semi-final hero, Joselu, meant the crossing obsession made little to no sense.
In total, Real Madrid recorded 33 crosses in open play, their most in a competitive game since attempting the same amount in a Champions League group match against Shakhtar Donetsk in October 2020. The last time they attempted more was against Real Valladolid in November 2018.
It’s safe to say it didn’t work. The visitors dealt with the crosses easily, with William Saliba making the most clearances (12) by an Arsenal player in a Champions League match since Per Mertesacker vs Bayern Munich in March 2014 (also 12).
On a night when Madrid needed to score at least three goals, it wasn’t ideal that it took until the 56th minute for them to have their first shot on target, and that it was one of only three they managed in the whole game from their 18 shots.
After Saka put his poor penalty behind him to give Arsenal the lead with a lovely deft finish, Vinícius Júnior almost immediately brought the Bernabéu to life when he pounced on a rare error from Saliba to equalise. It meant the Brazilian reached 10 Champions League goal involvements for a fourth consecutive season.
Was this it? The first chapter of the remontada everyone at Madrid seemed to be so confident about?
No, and it never really threatened to be. Kylian Mbappé hobbled off with 15 minutes to go having made little impact on either game, aside from almost winning a penalty in the first half only for referee François Letexier to overturn his initial awarding of it after a VAR review, seeing that his fellow Frenchman had gone to ground rather easily.
Gabriel Martinelli raced away to score Arsenal’s winner late on to rub salt into Madrid wounds, leaving no remontada, no chance of a 16th European title, and only questions about where the club go from here.
Following a La Liga and Champions League double last season, then adding long-term target Mbappé last summer, it seemed almost certain Real Madrid would have a bright immediate future. However, things haven’t quite worked out as they would have hoped.
They sit four points behind Barcelona in La Liga with seven games remaining and have only won one of their last five games in all competitions (D1 L3). They’ve scored 20 goals fewer than Barça, and 24 non-penalty goals fewer. Four teams have conceded fewer than their 31 goals against, while six teams have a lower expected goals against than their total of 33.8.
It was a particularly poor start to their Champions League defence. Real Madrid lost three of their first five league phase games, beaten by Lille, Milan and Liverpool, ultimately finishing in 11th place and having to compete in a two-leg play-off against Manchester City.
Two impressive performances saw them go through 6-3 on aggregate against an out-of-sorts City, but it took a penalty shootout including an incredibly unlucky slip from Atlético Madrid’s Julián Alvarez to see them into the last eight.
Madrid were outclassed by Arsenal across both legs of their quarter-final, though, suggesting that their bumps along the way had perhaps not been their characteristic ‘lulling the rest into a false sense of security’, rather a sign that they simply aren’t as good as they used to be.
In total, Madrid lost six of their 14 Champions League games this season, almost unthinkable for the most decorated club in the competition’s history.
According to the Opta supercomputer, Real Madrid have just a 13% chance of catching Barcelona and winning the league. They’ve already lost the Supercopa de España final to Barça, and although they have a chance of revenge in the Copa del Rey final on the horizon, the supercomputer again thinks the Blaugrana have a better chance of success (39.8% likelihood of winning after 90 minutes) than Madrid (33.4%).
It therefore means there is a very real possibility that the club could end their 2024-25 campaign without any silverware beyond last year’s UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Intercontinental Cup.
Rumours are already swirling that Carlo Ancelotti’s time in his second spell as manager will soon be up, with former player Xabi Alonso heavily tipped to be in the club’s sights as a successor following his impressive time at Bayer Leverkusen.
There did not seem to be much of a plan on Wednesday, with Bellingham, Mbappé, Vinícius and Rodrygo all kept quiet, while Federico Valverde and Aurélien Tchouaméni didn’t offer much in midfield either.
You couldn’t move for people suggesting they are missing Toni Kroos, with the lack of someone who can pick a lock abundantly apparent on Wednesday. Luka Modric came off the bench in the 74th minute but the game had drifted by then. Modric has now played more European Cup/ Champions League games than any other outfielder in Real Madrid’s history (134), overtaking Karim Benzema (133), but at the age of 39 and with doubts he’ll be offered a new deal, it could well have been his last.
This is Real Madrid; they will recover, the fans insist on it. But at the same time, it feels as though there’s a lot of surgery to be done on a very top-heavy squad for a presumably new manager.
It will be an interesting summer for Los Blancos, with rumours Trent Alexander-Arnold is top of their wish-list. While the Liverpool right-back is a fantastic player, it might concern Madridistas that the club’s answer to the team crossing the ball all the time is to just try and sign the best player at doing that.
For now, Real Madrid must focus on the title race and hope they can produce their best in the Copa del Rey final. That they have been beaten 4-0 and 5-2 by Barcelona in their two most recent Clásicos is also a dark cloud over the season that can only be remedied by revenge in the final and their La Liga meeting next month.
Talk of a remontada drifted into the night sky on Wednesday amid Arsenal celebrations. Real Madrid were unable to come back against the Gunners, but there are still trophies to play for this season, so any post-mortem can wait until the summer.
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From ‘Remontada’ to Nada? Real Madrid’s Season in Danger of Fizzling Out After Champions League Humbling Opta Analyst.
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