The time is nigh. It does look as if the football world might be witnessing one of the most anticipated UCL matches at the Santiago Bernabeu.

From right to left to centre, one cannot help but wonder what must be going on within the minds of Real Madrid players. From their minds to their speeches to their social media antics, one would think Arsenal players have not even taken to the fields to train at all or go to the drawing boards to discuss how to finish off the job they started.

“Remontada…[comeback] I’ve heard it about a million times this week, I’ve seen a million videos online.” These are words of Jude Bellingham when he was quizzed on what he felt was Real Madrid’s best strength. It is not only Jude who still believes in a comeback, Dani Ceballos, Rodrygo and Vini. Jr and a host of other players want Arsenal to come to a closed-roof Bernabeu to receive the beating of their lives. Just in the early hours of today, Vini and Rodrygo have taunted Arsenal in their social media posts with ‘9pm tomorrow’ and ‘See you tomorrow’ respectively.

A 3-0 full-time result was indeed humiliating for a team like Real Madrid in the Champions League. What was more humiliating was the manner they crumbled; the Los Blancos could not defend two wonderful free kicks from English Declan Rice and a curling low-shot from Spaniard Mikel Merino. Were it not for Thibaut Courtois’ heroics, the Spanish side could have conceded more than three goals.

But is a comeback even possible?

Arsenal would not want to borrow a leaf from Barcelona and PSG’s books after narrowly escaping yesterday. Both sides were complacent as they felt they had sealed their spots already. They could only thank their stars that they held on to it till the end of the games.

Quite interestingly, Carlo Ancelotti would be hoping to teach Borussia Dortmund and Aston Villa how to stage a proper comeback.

The only time Real Madrid have fought back from three goals down after a first leg came in the European Cup against Derby County in the last 16 of the 1975-76 edition. Then, they won 6-5 on aggregate following a 4-1 defeat at the Baseball Ground.

The last time Real Madrid had a task similar to this – overturning a three-goal deficit – was against Borussia Dortmund in 2012/2013 when the German side beat them at the Signal Iduna Park by four goals to one but Real Madrid only managed to score two goals in the return leg, losing 4-3 on aggregate.

In 2015/2016, they overturned a 2-0 Wolfsburg lead in the first leg, beating the German side by three goals to nil in the second leg. They did the same in 2016/2017 versus Paris Saint-Germain. In 2021/2022, they overturned a two-goal deficit in a return leg match against Manchester City when everyone thought all hope was lost.



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