A few hours before the start of the quarter-final second leg of the Champions League between Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, the Merengue season is hanging by a thread. Already well worn by the six defeats in La Liga synonymous with the title abandoned to Barça and by the humiliating elimination against the 2nd division club Albacete in the Copa del Rey, the latter is on the verge of giving up for good.
Arbeloa’s incantations
“Given our situation, this match is a final,” said Jude Bellingham at a press conference on Tuesday. It will be all or nothing. » The Englishman is right to set the scene like this. Beaten in the first leg at the Bernabeu by a team with a much more accomplished game plan than its own (1-2), Real finds itself facing an immense challenge, undoubtedly too much given its strengths and especially its weaknesses this season.
Even if we know the beast and its history in terms of epic reversals of situation, the incantations of coach Alvaro Arbeloa served Tuesday on the refrain “we are Real Madrid, the club with 15 Champions Leagues” seem very illusory. Bayern is a grinding machine, while the White House is only coughing.
The project launched around Kylian Mbappé in the summer of 2024 is slow to take off. The threat of a second season in a row without a major title for the Spanish giant with the Blues star at its head is very real, and no one will be spared on Thursday if the miracle does not happen. To measure the extent of the disaster, we must bear in mind that such a famine has not happened to Real since 2005-2006. Bellingham is well aware of the precipice:
« For us, every defeat in the Champions League feels like a disaster. We cannot hide. We want to stay in contention and win this Champions League. Playing to win a title at the end of the season, not just seeing the games go by. »
The association of the English midfielder with Mbappé and Vinicius will remain at the heart of the debates whatever happens. The former Borussia player admits a certain lack of fluidity, “because they are players who, naturally, both prefer to receive the ball on the left side, so it can be difficult when all three of us find ourselves on the same side.” But he wants to keep “confidence” in his two teammates.
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No choice, anyway. They are the ones who must show the way to the Allianz Arena, if it ever exists. Now is the time to save what can be saved, questions about the future will come later. 20 years ago, two blank seasons in a row resulted in the resignation of President Florentino Perez, signaling the failure of his Galactics project.
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