Dashed dreams of La Decima: Real Madrid's 11 years of hurt in Europe

2002/03 (Semi-finals vs Juventus)

Score: Real Madrid 2-1 Juventus; Juventus 3-1 Real Madrid (Juventus win 4-3 on aggregate)

This re-run of the 1998 final was still a fairly regulation clash of heavyweights in the early 2000s, Marcello Lippi’s Juventus still oozing pre-Calciopoli invincibility and defending champions Real seeing little reason to worry that a 10th title would be long in coming. That sense was heightened midway through the first half at the Bernabeu when Ronaldo (obligatory “we mean the old one, kids”) slid the ball home after a flowing move. Things were turned on their head just before the break when, seconds after the recalled Fernando Morientes – who hadn’t completed 90 minutes since the previous season’s Champions League final – had missed a sitter, David Trezeguet scored a vital away goal for Juve. Although Roberto Carlos drilled in a second-half winner, things were in the balance as a date in Turin approached.

Not for long. Juventus were brilliant in the second leg, with Alessandro Del Piero and Pavel Nedved each operating at the very top of his game. Trezeguet opened the scoring early on from the former’s knockdown, before Del Piero killed a high ball dead in the box, twisted this way and that, and made it two. In perhaps the tie’s crucial moment, Figo hit a tame second-half penalty at Gianluigi Buffon. Nedved subsequently ran clear to score a third and, although Zinedine Zidane made things interesting at the end, Vicente del Bosque’s side saw their crown slip. It was just a shame that Juventus and AC Milan proceeded to serve up 120 minutes of dirge in their all-Italian final.

A Zidane-inspired Real had edged out Bayern Munich in the last 16, and it was reasonable to expect more of the same when Didier Deschamps’ Monaco came to town. Real, now managed by Carlos Queiroz, went a goal down at the Bernabeu when Sebastien Squillaci (another lesson for the youngsters: he was one of Europe’s more reliable central defenders back then) bundled home just before the break. Ivan Helguera, assisted by a ponytailed David Beckham, scored a scrambled effort of his own – opening the floodgates for more goals from Zidane, Luis Figo and Ronaldo. At the time, nobody realised how important a late diving header from Morientes, finding his bearings in Monaco’s colours, would be.

That’s because they hadn’t bargained on a remarkable comeback from the hosts at the Stade Louis II. Raul clipped Real into a 5-2 aggregate lead 36 minutes in, Ludovic Giuly’s bobbling volley – after Morientes had headed back a deep Patrice Evra cross – only appearing to make matters slightly interesting. Another Evra delivery then saw Morientes, playing like a man possessed, leap to convert a superb header, and suddenly Monaco had 42 minutes to find a winner. Giuly delivered with a backheeled finish in the 66th minute, sparking a level of rapture hitherto unknown in the principality.

Real were getting through managers at breakneck speed by now. Queiroz was long gone by the time Juventus arrived for a rematch in February 2005 – but so too, incredibly, were Jose Antonio Camacho and Mariano Garcia Remon. Vanderlei Luxemburgo had not long since begun his own short-lived crack at things when the Beckham-Helguera combination came good again and gave Real a handy 1-0 first-leg lead – one that would have been added to if Raul, looking for his 50th Champions League goal, had been wearing his shooting boots.

Hearteningly, Luxemburgo was still in charge when the second leg came around two weeks later. Things were fine for 75 minutes at the Stadio Delle Alpi, Iker Casillas saving brilliantly from Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Ronaldo missing a couple of chances to close things out on the counter. Trezeguet’s hooked finish – near-identical to the one that had opened the scoring two years previously – altered the complexion, with Ronaldo’s extra-time dismissal putting Real firmly on the ropes. Two minutes after his dismissal, Marcelo Zalayeta lashed in a winner to which Real, with Michael Owen introduced from the bench, had no time for a response. It was enough to persuade Fabio Capello, now in charge at Juve, to let his hair down. "Beating Real caused me a special emotion," he purred. "I think it is the first time I have celebrated like that but now I've done it, I'd like to try it again."

This one didn’t feel as if it should present too much trouble for Real, even if their erratic domestic and European performances hadn’t seen Luxemburgo last beyond December. Arsenal were floundering in the Premier League and were weakened, too, with the likes of Mathieu Flamini and Philippe Senderos deployed in a fragile-looking defence and huge responsibility being place on the shoulders of a young Cesc Fabregas. At the Bernabeu, it was the Catalan who presented Thierry Henry with an innocuous pass just inside the Real half, before looking on as his colleague brushed aside all comers to score a scintillating only goal of the first leg. Arsenal could even have scored more; on a side note, Real’s night was compounded by the sadly familiar vision of an early injury to Jonathan Woodgate.

No matter: there was still every reason to be confident of scoring at Highbury, where Arsenal had recently shipped three to West Ham. But while Real had chances, Ronaldo coming close early on, it wasn’t exactly the Alamo – and the Gunners passed up on several good opportunities of their own. A moment just as decisive as Henry’s first-leg goal arrived in the 59th minute, when Raul saw his shot tipped onto the post by Jens Lehmann before somehow allowing the goalkeeper to save his rebound, too. Real didn’t come that close again, and Juan Ramon Lopez Caro would become the latest manager to know that he wouldn’t be long in the hotseat.

Delight at having beaten his old club didn’t stop Capello taking the job for a second time when it came up before 2006/07. He wouldn’t last long, despite edging a breathless title race, and his inability to come out on the right side of an equally fine margin in the Champions League didn’t help his cause. Playing with an abandon that came all too rarely for president Ramon Calderon – they had scored just five in the previous 10 games – Real were 3-1 up at half-time of their Round of 16 first leg against Ottmar Hitzfeld’s Bayern. Two close-range goals from Raul sandwiched a reply from Lucio, Ruud van Nistelrooy proceeding to put them firmly in command. Not for the first time, though, a late goal conceded at home would prove critical; Mark van Bommel thrashing a half-volley in after 87 minutes.

The last 16 proved a hurdle too far for Real at the fourth consecutive time of asking. Bernd Schuster was behind the wheel at this stage, and had a remodelled squad to play with – the likes of Arjen Robben, Pepe and Wesley Sneijder all having hopped aboard. They’d scored seven against Valladolid nine days before travelling to Rome, where Raul deflected in an early Guti shot to leave Real looking good to slay their ghosts. David Pizarro levelled things up before, on 58 minutes, Francesco Totti played in Brazilian winger Mancini who rounded Casillas to hand Roma the advantage.

That lead was extended with just 17 minutes to play of a hithero goalless second leg at the Bernabeu. Pepe had just been sent off when Rodrigo Taddei headed Roma in front, but Raul responded quickly to leave the 10 men one goal away from extra-time. It didn’t materialise: Mirko Vucinic scored a header of his own in added time to send Luciano Spalletti’s side through and leave Real pondering yet another year in which a good position had been put to waste.

The irascible Schuster had, in a night-follows-day development, been replaced by Juande Ramos two months before this tie with Liverpool, who were enjoying their best domestic season of the Premier League era. Two group stage defeats to Juventus had cast doubt upon Real’s preparedness to take on the best, but they could barely have expected what followed here. Conceding to a Yossi Benayoun header doesn’t amount to anything better than a dereliction of duty, but that’s exactly what an experienced defence achieved eight minutes from the end of what had, in truth, been a drab first leg at the Bernabeu.

An old foe would blow them away in the return leg – a game that fitted the ‘magical European night at Anfield’ mould. Ex-Atletico man Fernando Torres was in his pomp around this time, and put Liverpool ahead after 16 minutes. By the 47th minute Steven Gerrard had scored another couple, one a penalty, and Andrea Dossena’s completely unchallenged late fourth underlined the fact that, somehow, Real had found yet another novel way of putting their Decima claims on hold for another year.

The beleaguered Ramos’s inevitable exit gave Manuel Pellegrini, who had moulded a delightful Villarreal side, his few months in the sun. Cristiano Ronaldo had been the biggest pre-season arrival, though, joined by Karim Benzema and Xabi Alonso. New personnel, same frustrations however. Lyon, a team whose star was soon to wane, looked beatable but dominated matters at the Stade Gerland. Jean Makoun put them in front with a sublime long-rang goal shortly after the interval and, all things considered, the impression was that Real hadn’t come out too badly with a one-goal deficit.

Real’s eventual elimination was one of their more dramatic. Ronaldo put them in front early on, running through the inside-left channel to slot past Hugo Lloris, and they banged on the door after that; Higuain struck the post when clear and was superbly denied by the Lyon keeper shortly afterwards. As the second half wore, things began to ebb slightly – the realisation perhaps dawning that the tie remained very much in the balance. The visitors scented blood for the first time: a rapid-fire piece of interplay in the Real penalty area ended at the feet of Miralem Pjanic who, with 15 minutes to play, scored a goal that was worth two. It was an outcome that had seemed unthinkable an hour or so previously.

The damage in this double-pronged Clasico was done at the end of the first leg. Things had been pretty tight in an increasingly tetchy clash at the Bernabeu, Mourinho doing a decent enough job at smothering Lionel Messi and pals. Then, not for the first time, a rush of blood from Pepe turned things. His high challenge on Dani Alves in the 62nd minute earned him a straight red, and Mourinho’s inevitable protests secured the same for him. Messi went on to score twice, his second a superb solo effort, and set Real an astronomical task for the second leg.

A penalty shootout is all that this list has been missing; when called upon to deliver, Real once more fluffed their lines. They conceded early to Franck Ribery in the Allianz Arena but recovered their composure to level in the second half through Mesut Ozil’s tap-in. It looked as if Real would return home with an away-goal advantage, but if you’ve got this far you’ll know that they’d long since perfected the art of shooting themselves in the foot; Mario Gomez arrived deep inside the six-yard box to jab in a 90th minute winner, and now Mourinho’s side would have to win at the Bernabeu.

That seemed a reasonable enough prospect when Real took another early home lead, Ronaldo scoring from the spot. He made it two before 14 minutes were up, and there seemed little way back for the Bavarians. The previous nine years, though, had shown that Real always give you a chance: Arjen Robben took his – just – in the 27th minute, Pepe having been the culprit again in conceding a penalty to Gomez, and surprisingly that was that for the next 93 minutes.

The game looked likely to be up as soon as Manuel Neuer dived to his right to save the usually unerring Ronaldo’s spot-kick, Real’s first of the shootout. He then made an even better save from Kaka. Incredibly, Real then seemed to pull it out of the fire, Xabi Alonso converting while Toni Kroos and Philipp Lahm missed. Then Sergio Ramos, stared down by Neuer, blasted over; Bastian Schweinsteiger scored, and it almost seemed a little bit cruel.

Real could hardly say they hadn’t been warned. They’d lost 2-1 away to Jurgen Klopp’s whirlwind of a side in the group stage, also being held to a 2-2 draw at home. Mourinho’s men still looked battle-hardened to see this one through, but reckoned without one of the great modern collective – and individual – displays from the team in yellow. Robert Lewandowski’s opener seemed fairly irrelevant when Ronaldo rolled into an empty net just before the break, but what followed was incredible. In 16 second-half minutes, Lewandowski had tapped in from six yards, crashed home from 12 for his hat-trick after a brilliant turn, and converted a penalty for his fourth. From a position of control, Real were on the brink.

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