Real Madrid needs an unprecedented comeback in Munich in the European Cup

Real Madrid lost this Tuesday against Bayern Munich 1-2 in the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals, so they are forced to overcome this result to occupy a place in the continental semifinals, something that the merengue team has never achieved in the European Cup and only once in their European history.

Two errors in prohibited areas, one at the end of the first half that led to a precise and effective combination that Luis Díaz culminated in for 0-1, and another before the first minute of play of the second half, which generated a shot from the front of Harry Kane into the back of the net, got the merengue team into trouble, which was able to save a life for the return.

The whites travel to Munich with more hope thanks to the goal in the second half by Frenchman Kylian Mbappé, who already has 14 goals as top scorer in the top continental competition. Thus, Real Madrid knows that a goal ties the match and puts them back in the fight for the place in the ‘semi’, although for this they must perform a miracle that has never happened in the white entity.

The 15-time European champion has only managed to turn around an adverse result in the first leg at home on the seven occasions that it has lost the first game at the Santiago Bernabéu in a continental tie. It was in the Cup Winners’ Cup – a competition played by the Cup champions of each country – in 1970-1971 against Wacker Innsbruck in the round of 16.

Then, the Austrian team defeated Real Madrid 0-1 as a visitor thanks to Graussmann’s goal on a freezing night and in front of around 30,000 spectators. The second leg, in a packed Tivoli Stadion in Innsbruck, was tense and the two goals (0-2) for the Madrid team, from Toni Grande and Manolín Bueno, came in the last 15 minutes. In that edition, the Madridistas reached the final, but lost to English club Chelsea FC.

This is the only European tie that Real Madrid has managed to win after losing the first leg at home. The first and only mirror in which Álvaro Arbeloa’s pupils can look at themselves in their desire in Munich to advance to the semi-finals. And it is an almost impossible mission in Europe, because the white team only has approximately a 7% chance of continuing in the competition, according to statistics.

The Madrid team found itself in this situation on six other occasions. In the 1993-94 season, again in the Cup Winners’ Cup, French team Paris Saint-Germain won the first leg of the quarterfinals with a goal from George Weah; and then it was worth 1-1 in the second leg at the Parc des Princes.

Already in the modern Champions League era, in 2001, Bayern – the last victory of the Germans at the Bernabéu until this Tuesday – won 0-1 with a goal from Giovane Élber in the semifinals in a match in which they eliminated the whites, defeated in the Bavarian capital by 2-1 and who were then the current champions.

Only five years later, with Real Madrid immersed in its curse of the round of 16 in the Champions League, Thierry Henry conquered the Madrid fiefdom with a great goal on the counterattack so that Arsenal won 0-1, in a tie in which the Madrid team was left to zero after a goalless draw in the second leg in London.

In February 2009, once again an English team made the night worse for the fans in Chamartín. The Liverpool of Rafa Benítez, Fernando Torres,

CITY, LATEST ADVERSE PRECEDENT

Already with José Mourinho on the bench, Real Madrid fell 0-2 in the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals against FC Barcelona in 2011 – the last Clásico in the Champions League -. A double from Leo Messi in the second half sealed a match marked by the expulsion of Pepe, which provoked the anger of the Portuguese coach in the famous subsequent press conference with his expression of ‘why’. At the Camp Nou, they could only draw by one goal.

And Real Madrid’s most recent defeat in a first leg played at the Santiago Bernabéu was in the 2019-20 season, in the pandemic Champions League. It was against a Manchester City that came back from a first goal by Isco, with two goals in the final stretch by Gabriel Jesús and Kevin de Bruyne from a penalty, falling, months later at an Etihad without an audience again by 2-1.

All in all, the statistics are not at all favorable for the Madridistas, who in addition to all those qualifying rounds were only able to win once, 55 years ago, what they need at the Allianz Arena to force at least one extra time and continue dreaming of not being too far away from lifting at least one title in mid-April.

Nor did they do too well in their recent history when they tied the first leg at the Santiago Bernabéu and the goals were still worth double the value as in the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals 20-21 against Chelsea, which drew 1-1 at the Di Stéfano and then won 2-0 at Stamford Bridge.

The Ukrainian Dinamo kyiv did the same in the first leg of the 98-99 quarterfinals (1-1) and won 2-0 in the second leg, and, already at the end of the 80s, both the Dutch PSV and the Italian Milan asserted their one-goal draws in the Concha Espina fiefdom in the first leg of the semifinals in 1988 and 1989, respectively, with 0-0 and the remembered 5-0 San Siro. In 2013, after a 1-1 draw against English Manchester United, they came back to win 1-2 at Old Trafford with a whip from Croatian Luka Modric.