The remontada has long been part of Real’s identity but recent second-leg
Champions League trips suggest it is mere folklore
“If there is a team anywhere that can turn this around, it’s them,”
Pep Guardiola said. And so, it seemed, did almost everyone else. Down on the touchline at full time Casemiro said it. Up in the commentary box the former
Real Madrid player and manager Jorge Valdano said it, too. He knows: Valdano was a member of the team who constructed an identity around the remontada, making dramatic comebacks part of Real’s mythology. It was a belief system, an act of faith.
But faith is blind and the reality is different. Real may indeed turn their Champions League last-16 tie around after the 2-1 defeat to
Manchester City at the Bernabéu on Wednesday. They have the players to do so even if they don’t have that player any more.
Cristiano Ronaldo is gone but no one would be daft enough to say it’s done. No one from City did so, that’s for sure.