Real Madrid's Champions League suffering - until 'La Decima' changed everything (2024)

“I’m not going to stop until La Decima is won,” Florentino Perez said in June 2011.

Real Madrid’s president was speaking at the launch of a book about Zinedine Zidane’s playing career, nine years after the Frenchman’s special volley sealed a 2-1 Champions League final victory over Bayer Leverkusen at Glasgow’s Hampden Park.

That 2002 Champions League title was Madrid’s ninth in total and third in five seasons. Thanks to six successes in its early days — Madrid won the European Cup’s first five editions between 1956 and 1960, as well as in 1966 — the Spanish giants were already the competition’s record holders.

But as Perez spoke at the event at the Bernabeu, such glory seemed a long way in the past, and La Decima — a 10th trophy — was proving problematic.

Madrid fans had been frustrated by several early exits, which were often quickly followed by coaches being sacked. European defeats could even bring about a change of president — Perez’s first term ended in February 2006, soon after a 1-0 home defeat by Arsenal in the last 16.

Ramon Calderon was elected to the position the following summer.

“I wouldn’t say (La Decima) was an obsession, but it was a dream and an objective,” Calderon tells The Athletic. “The club, and its fans, have always considered the European Cup as ‘our competition’. We were one of the founders in 1956. We know it is very difficult, but there’s an obligation to win it every year.”

Calderon’s term in charge brought La Liga titles in 2006-07 and 2007-08, but Madrid fell to three consecutive Champions League last-16 defeats at the hands of Bayern Munich, Roma and Liverpool. That hurt even more when Madrid’s biggest rivals Barcelona beat Manchester United in the 2009 final.

Perez returned that summer and Madrid spent more than €200million (£170m; $217.5m) on new players including Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka and Xabi Alonso — all Champions League winners at their previous clubs.

Yet by now, the longing for La Decima had become difficult to handle for everyone at the club. Even big stars were affected by the pressure and tension, especially at the Bernabeu.

In that season’s Champions League, Madrid lost their last-16 first leg 1-0 at Lyon but looked in control of the tie when Ronaldo made it 1-1 on aggregate after just six minutes of the return match. Then nerves began to spread in the stands and on the pitch. The visitors started to dominate and deservedly progressed thanks to Miralem Pjanic’s strike with 15 minutes left.

“Madrid had a fantastic team, fantastic players and the final that year was at the Bernabeu,” ex-Lyon coach Claude Puel recalls.

“It was difficult for us as we went 1-0 down early. (But) after half-time, their players were very nervous, without calm and without quality. We made some changes too, and came back into the game with high intensity and good possession. I was surprised to see this (Madrid) team losing their quality, with all the good players they had.”

The winning manager of that 2010 final at the Bernabeu was Jose Mourinho, whose Inter Milan team had beaten Pep Guardiola’s Barca in the semi-finals. Mourinho joined Madrid that summer and his first season saw the team go further in the Champions League than they had for eight years — but in the semi-finals, they fell short against Barca, with Lionel Messi scoring twice in the first leg at the Bernabeu, both goals coming after Madrid defender Pepe’s controversial red card.

The following year, Madrid again made the last four, this time facing Bayern. Two Ronaldo goals in the first 14 minutes of the second leg put them 3-2 up on aggregate, with energy surging through the Bernabeu — yet nerves set in again. Arjen Robben equalised and Bayern won 3-1 on penalties, with Ronaldo, Kaka and Sergio Ramos missing their spot kicks.

Mourinho’s third campaign saw La Decima hype crank up again after a 3-2 aggregate win over Manchester United in the last 16, but a 4-1 semi-final first-leg shock defeat at Jurgen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund meant a 2-0 second-leg victory was not enough.

“It’s not easy in the Champions League,” ex-Madrid goalkeeper Diego Lopez says. “The (Dortmund) tie left a bittersweet taste. We were close to a comeback. It was tough to take.”

Mourinho had instilled a more competitive streak in the squad, but he left that summer with his relationship with many players, including Ronaldo and Iker Casillas, having broken down completely.

Since their ninth Champions League success in 2002, more than €1billion had been spent on players, with 11 different coaches hired and fired, but La Decima seemed just as far away as ever.

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Mourinho’s replacement was Carlo Ancelotti, who had won the Champions League twice as both a player and coach at AC Milan. Arriving at the Bernabeu in June 2013, Ancelotti and his assistant Paul Clement were left in doubt of the importance of their new club’s European pedigree.

“I realised how big this was going to be when (we entered) the boardroom where, along one side of the walls, were nine European Cups, all lined up,” Clement told The Athletic in 2020. “They hadn’t lined up all the other trophies — the leagues or cups. It was just the Champions Leagues.”

Also new that summer was Gareth Bale, signed from Tottenham Hotspur for a world-record €101million. “I’ve already learned how to say ‘La Decima’,” Bale said at his presentation, in front of a backdrop of photos of him as a kid wearing a Zidane-era Madrid kit.

By March, Ancelotti’s side were top of La Liga and into the Copa del Rey final against Barca, yet the season’s objective was clear. “I’d prefer to win La Decima,” Ramos said before that month’s La Liga Clasico.

Schalke were beaten 9-2 on aggregate in the Champions League last 16, with Karim Benzema, Bale and Ronaldo scoring twice each in the second leg at a gleeful Bernabeu. The quarter-final first leg was an easy 3-0 win at home to Dortmund but, with Ronaldo injured, Madrid scraped nervously through the return, progressing 3-2 on aggregate.

There was more tension before the semi-final first leg, with Guardiola’s Bayern the visitors. The only goal came through a counter-attack finished by Benzema. Nerves in the second leg fell away after Ramos scored two first-half headers, and a Ronaldo brace completed an impressive 5-0 aggregate win.

Now the Decima hype was really mounting, especially as Atletico Madrid beat Mourinho’s Chelsea in the other semi-final. Ancelotti’s team took just two points from their final three league games, allowing Atletico to take the title, with everyone at the Bernabeu focused on the Champions League decider in Lisbon.

“We’ve spent years trying to win this trophy,” Ronaldo said ahead of the final. “From the very first day we arrive at this club, we feel positive pressure to win the Champions League. We’re just one small step away now.”

When the game finally kicked off, both teams were tense, with the opening stages stop-start and error-strewn. Then on 36 minutes, Madrid only half-cleared an Atletico corner and Juanfran returned the ball towards the penalty spot. Casillas decided to come for it but then started to backpedal furiously as Diego Godin’s header soared over the stranded goalkeeper. Diego Simeone’s side had the lead.

Through the second half, Madrid pressed for an equaliser but Atletico defended stoutly. It was still 1-0 when Luka Modric went to take a 93rd-minute corner. Ramos rose and guided his header away from Thibaut Courtois and into the far corner.

Into extra time, the momentum was all with Ancelotti’s side. Bale’s 100th-minute close-range header made it 2-1. Marcelo soon surged straight through an exhausted defence and finished triumphantly.

“It was just an explosion of pleasure, really,” Marcelo told The Athletic in 2022. “A film goes through your head, everything that has happened since you were small, in just five seconds. Something you cannot explain. It’s just madness.”

With Atletico deflated, Ronaldo won and converted a penalty to complete the scoring. He celebrated bare-chested in front of a camera, and the images later appeared in his personally financed biopic.

“This is so huge, even bigger than the World Cup,” said Casillas that night (and he knew, having captained Spain to the World Cup in 2010). “So long without having a final like this… La Decima, a round number, a perfect number.”

“La Decima was an obsession for the club and the fans,” Modric said a few days later. “We really felt an enormous pressure. Now we’ll be more relaxed and more lethal. With some new signings, as usually happens here, we’ll become even stronger.”

Sure enough, Madrid spent more than €110million that summer to sign World Cup stars James Rodriguez, Toni Kroos and Keylor Navas. The 2014-15 season did not go as planned, with Ancelotti fired the following summer after a Champions League semi-final defeat by Juventus.

But mostly the same players won three more European titles with Zidane as coach from 2016 to 2018.

“There was a great group of players, a very strong squad, not just a team,” says Lopez.

“Nobody expected them to win three Champions Leagues in a row. It’s crazy. It’s a competition Madrid have always been good at, but recently they’ve been more than good at it.”

The mood when Madrid played in Europe had swung around completely. Instead of players, fans and directors being frozen by the Champions League anthem, everyone became inspired and confident.

Ramos, Ronaldo, Modric, Kroos, Benzema and Bale generally reserved their best form for the competition, raising their game as a gleeful Bernabeu crowd would chorus: “We are the kings of Europe.”

Others who arrived along the way, such as right-back Dani Carvajal, were carried along.

“I arrived in a golden era, a fantastic decade, and since La Decima, I’ve only had to experience success,” Carvajal told The Athletic this week.

It was not all plain sailing, but Zidane’s team held their nerve during the penalty shootout that decided the 2016 final against Atletico in Milan. In the 2017-18 quarter-finals, Juventus came from 3-0 down to level the second leg at the Bernabeu, but Ronaldo converted a penalty winner in stoppage time. The 2021-22 campaign, with Ancelotti back as coach, saw ever more thrilling comebacks through the knockout stages against Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and Manchester City.

“Winning that trophy (La Decima) was very important, to keep building the legend of a team that keeps looking for victory until the referee blows the final whistle,” Calderon says.

“It allowed the youngsters, who had never experienced it before, to realise that. (But also) the team being made up of very good players has been the base for achieving all the success that followed.”

During the long wait between 2002 and 2014, each Champions League season brought more pressure and more disappointment for Madrid. But after Lisbon, everything changed for the club’s emotional connection to the competition, bringing four more trophies in the following nine years.

Even as older players Casillas, Ramos, Ronaldo and Bale left, new stars — Vinicius Junior, Rodrygo and now Jude Bellingham — have kept up the momentum.

This year, Madrid’s players have again come through awkward situations on their way to Saturday’s final at Wembley against Borussia Dortmund. They kept their cool during the quarter-final penalty shootout at Manchester City, then pulled off yet another comeback when Joselu’s late double beat Bayern in the semi-finals.

“We’ve a very vivid memory of the 2014 final,” Ancelotti said in a recent press conference.

“That’s where this generation began to win titles. Many of the same players are still there, along with youngsters who are stepping up.

“It all started with La Decima.”

(Top photo: Alex Livesey/Getty Images)