“Real Madrid 1-99 Arsenal”

Fernando Morientes certainly knows about football. Over 300 LaLiga appearances, nearly 50 in the Premier League and around 40 in Ligue 1, he’s been around the block enough to be listened to when it comes to giving his opinion on the game.

Three Champions Leagues and a pair of LaLiga trophies don’t come easily, and putting the ball in the back of the net for arguably the biggest club in the world is a job for those with, as they say in Spanish, quite big ‘eggs’.

But he also knows Real Madrid, and the madness they bring. Despite giving Los Blancos just a “1%” chance against Arsenal in their second leg match in the Champions League quarterfinals after losing 3-0 in London, he also admitted that the game was just about “recoverable” for Ancelotti’s men.

‘Real Madrid heads did drop and it was a shock’

“Real Madrid heads did drop and it was a shock” he admitted exclusively to AS, speaking thanks to bet365, (who offer UEFA Champions League odds), “even after the first goal, which did a lot of damage. Even the second, a 2-0, is recoverable at the Bernabéu, much more recoverable than a 3-0, but it’s true that at that moment the team stopped being able to find the solutions they normally have to score a goal.

‘They collapsed, they couldn’t find a solution’

While Declan Rice launched two Falcon Heavy rockets into Thibaut Courtois’ goal, Real Madrid looked utterly toothless, with a fruitless Mbappé attempt of a solo version of the usual orchestra the best thing to happen on a truly terrible night.

And it’s not even, in fact, that the ‘usual’ Real Madrid weren’t here: they haven’t been at their best all season. The question as to why, on the biggest night so far in the campaign, in what is undisputedly their tournament, Arsenal were able to trot up and down the pitch at their will and practically score goals with no retaliation, no spark, no ‘oh-here-comes-the-comeback’ moment from Real Madrid, seems to have no answer.

“I can understand Arsenal scoring three goals in London, it can happen” Morientes admitted. “What surprises me most isn’t Arsenal’s three goals, but Real Madrid’s inability to score a goal when I don’t know how many games Madrid has gone without scoring.

“So that’s what strikes me, that Real Madrid weren’t able to recover from those first two goals, they even collapsed and conceded the third, and they couldn’t find a solution to score that goal that would have put them in the tie.

There is always the Bernabéu factor, and it was present in the post-game comments after the loss. Never has the word remontada - comeback - had so many mentions, one can’t help but think it might be worth recording a song with that word to reap the royalties at this time of year. “That’s why we have to think positively” Morientes said.

However, something smells off for Morientes, one of those intangible belly rumblings that football gives you without being clear enough to provide a reason: “Real Madrid have done it many times, but this one is something different, something very powerful is needed. We’ll see what happens.” As usual, the Bernabéu crowd will have their say, and this one will need to be quite special.

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