The night things went south at the Bernabeu included indiscipline, a documentary and the threat: “I’ll kick you out!” | Relief
Woody Allen once said he admired the sport. ability to write unpredictable scripts and unusual endings. What we experienced last Saturday at Mestalla, with the terrible direction of the finale by Gil Manzano, was a perfect example, the last one, that the director is always right. In football in general, and especially when Real Madrid is at the center, you cannot count on predictable results. Its history is full of comebacks that upset predictions made moments ago, but it is also littered with unexpected landslides, after which a storm always raged.
The last great “night of broken glass” remembered at the Santiago Bernabeu occurred just five years ago, on March 5, 2019.when the defeat to Ajax, unpredictable in content and form, exploded the tense dressing room with his coach (Solari) and This prompted the President, who had renounced his hieraticism, to raise his voice and try to redirect the water.
Before analyzing the black box of chaos, let’s outline the background to Real Madrid and Ajax’s comeback from the last 16 of the Champions League. The team was then coached by Solari. From the first match in Amsterdam he brought with him a good catch (1-2) and a bad idea from Sergio Ramos. Captain after Marco Asensio’s goal to extend the lead at the Johan Cruyff Arena caused a yellow card which resulted in a penalty in the second leg and allowed him to pass cleanly for a hypothetical quarter-final pass. That’s how decisive he saw the tie. The business bore fruit. For this act and for the subsequent statements of the Sevillian.
At first he tacitly admitted that he forced the warning (“After seeing the result, I decided so”), although he later backtracked on his social networks: “I want to make it clear that it hurts me more than anyone else that I did not force the card and did not do this against Roma in my previous Champions League match, and that I will support the stands more as a fan with the hope that I can reach the quarterfinals.” A fix that didn’t hurt UEFA launched an investigation and punished him with a two-match ban.
We then return to Ramos, whose image in the eyes of the spectators marked the match on a night that brought too many worries. On the one hand, sports, well The Madridistas arrived after two consecutive defeats in the Clasico – in the semi-finals of the Cup and League.. They didn’t score a single goal and the results opened the gates to Mourinho’s shadow. On the other side, relativesthose that concerned the atmosphere of the locker room, rarefied by the new shrimp from Bale’s agent Jonathan Barnett (“Fans should kiss his feet”) and another friction between Solari and Isco, which ended with indiscipline on the part of the man from Malaga..
Isko, file and documentary
Their relationship was already a public divorce. The coach chose don’t include it in the list of those summoned, and when the one from Arroyo de la Miel heard the news, he decided not to board the team bus. He took his car and left Ciudad Deportiva. He was not present at Solari’s pre-match talk, the coach informed the club of his absence and Real Madrid, relying on its internal code, opened a disciplinary case against him.
Two days later, the player apologized to his teammates. But The chapter changed the previous concentration of the key meeting.. Lost the Cup and the League, it was the Champions League or nothing. Ahead of promising Ajax: De Ligt impresses in defense; Van de Beek and De Jong, who signed a contract with Barca, in light suits in the middle; and Ziyech and Tadic are plotting above. After losing in Europe, the Dutch won everything, scoring an average of more than four goals per game.
With an action-packed prologue and astounding statistics, a battle was born. The chronicle of events soon became clearer. At the 18th minute, Ajax was leading 2:0 (Ziyech and Neres), and at the 35th minute, Madrid had already lost two matches: Lucas Vazquez and the injured “young” Vinicius. Meanwhile, Sergio Ramos is in the box recording his documentary about Amazon. Grotesque In September, the screams that the captain made in his aquarium were heard. “You have to score, no matter what, you have to score,” he said after the 0-1 draw. “Don’t joke with me, this is incredible,” he was upset after 0:2. Vinicius’ hit left him fearing the worst: “Don’t blame me, he was injured too…” Tadic’s score 0:3 in the 62nd minute stopped the recording.
Marco Asensio’s goal raised mild hopes, but the Bernabeu failed to sound the horn. Three minutes later, Schene’s free-kick condemned Madrid’s disastrous performance at both ends and further strengthened an Ajax team that had reached the semi-finals. The goal was one of those blows that leave internal stories for a long time, erase coaches and close cycles. All this was in the anatomy of this autumn.
The next blows after such a powerful elimination go to the locker room. In the thick of minutes in a hut after a shipwreck you can stick darts. And even more so in Real Madrid, where any defeat is a K2 made of sand. That night, in the bowels of the stadium, One of the most heated discussions took place between Sergio Ramos and Florentino Perez. At the end of the brawl, as usual, the President came down from the box. As Manu Sainz reported in Diario As, news that was later confirmed, he waited for the players and reproached them for their “shameful” attitude. The tension on all sides led to a very tense exchange of statements.
Ramos responded and pointed out to the team, members of the coaching staff and medical staff: “The planning was disgraceful.” Florentino even told him, “I miss you.” The camera’s reaction was: “Great. You pay me and I’ll leave.” I gave everything and broke my face for this shield, for this club and even for you.” A fight that did not end at that moment in the relationship between them, a kind of “marriage”. The captain continued to be like this until 2021, when he left through the small door as soon as Florentino Perez’s contract extension offer expired…
On March 5, the verdict was handed down to coach Solari. “I’m very sorry, President,” he apologized after his defeat. “I’m even more sorry,” was what he heard in response. A phrase that in such situations implies a change of course. Especially if the boss starts hearing shouts directed at him. The following days were hectic in terms of debates and internal meetings until On March 11, Real announced the termination of the Argentine’s contract and the return of Zidane..
The Frenchman returned nine months and eight days later, wrapped in a divine mantle stitched together with the remnants of his first stage on the bench: three Champions Leagues, one League (a Champions League double in 2017), two Club World Cups, two European Super Cups. and the Spanish Super Cup. Florentino rushed into his arms again Zizouwhich once again calmed the atmosphere and glued the fragments of the last great volcanic night experienced in the corridors of the Bernabeu.