The history of comebacks that mean Arsenal cannot switch off against Real Madrid

Independent

14-04-2025

In the hours immediately after Real Madrid's 3-0 defeat to Arsenal, their chastened players insisted on making a point. They started posting on social media about how it's not over, which may seem the sort of banality that modern stars do, but was actually part of something more concerted.
It is a modern version of the first of club legend Juanito's 10 requirements for ' remontadas ' - in what is essentially the club's playbook for such moments - which is to already start talking about beating the opposition on the bus back for the first leg. The former winger became synonymous with comebacks due to a series of epics in the 1980s, and his name is going to be invoked a lot over the next few days. The Madrid industrial complex has already started cranking into gear to create ' ambiente de remontada ' - a comeback atmosphere.
There are few like it in football. Even teams with a strong lead have felt beaten as soon as that Bernabeu atmosphere starts up. As Juanito told Internazionale's Graziano Bini during a 3-0 Madrid comeback from 2-0 in the 1984-85 Uefa Cup final, '90 minutes is a long time in the Santiago Bernabeu'. Three minutes can be bad enough. You only have to look at the end of the famous 3-1 over Manchester City in the 2021-22 Champions League semi-final.
Part of it is down to this famous 'aura' that everyone from City to Bayern Munich and Chelsea have felt in the Bernabeu. Arsenal are going to face the same scenario. The stadium is infused with belief, radiating through the players.
This is not a supporter culture that has any classic football neurosis in its identity. If you take a seat at the Bernabeu for such an occasion, you're virtually certain to see middle-aged men in expensive leather jackets, puffing on giant cigars and saying 'of course we're not going to lose - we're Madrid!'
Doubt doesn't really come into it. Even if they're still three goals down into the second half of the Arsenal second leg, the chant will start up, ' si se puede ' - yes we can.
Part of it is also down to the history that has created such an aura. It is one reason why Madrid renovating the Bernabeu rather than moving was so important. When their players look around, they know they're somewhere where a lot of football history has happened, with almost all of it having amplified the greatness of the club.
'Younger players like myself have understood the legend of the Santiago Bernabeu during European nights after these matches,' goalscoring hero Rodrygo said after the win over City.
No club has successfully come back from at least two goals down in the first leg of a European knock-out tie as much as Madrid. The 15-time Champions League winners have done it nine times. Barcelona are actually next, with eight, and Manchester United on five. Four of Madrid's have also been in the European Cup or Champions League.
The Paris Saint-Germain and City games of 2021-22 aren't even on this list, of course, because Madrid only went two down over the course of the second legs. Carlo Ancelotti's team gave themselves less time for such comebacks and still managed it.
Their most spectacular actually came during a sensational two seasons in the old Uefa Cup in the middle of the 1980s, which was where the 'spirit of Juanito' was created. The winger, who died in a car accident in 1992, was central to all of them. Madrid managed five in two seasons, winning the Uefa Cup in both campaigns.
Little wonder the club began to feel anything was possible. These were the days when the European Cup only featured national champions, but the strength in depth of the Uefa Cup ensured it was almost considered a superior competition. Diego Maradona played in it with Napoli much more.
Ominously for Arsenal, it was a three-goal deficit against an English club in the European Cup that gave rise to the start of all of this. Even after Dave Mackay's Derby County had destroyed Madrid 4-1 at the old Baseball Ground in 1975-76, former left-back Jose Antonio Camacho was repeatedly saying they would win 6-0 on the bus back to London. 'We're going to do it.'
'We were totally convinced we would still knock them out,' Vicente Del Bosque, then a midfielder, has said.
They didn't quite get six but they did get enough, beating Derby 4-1 in normal time before Carlos Santillana claimed the clinching fifth in extra-time.
Juanito had taken note of Camacho's fervour and would subsequently include it as the first requirement on his list. Known as ' el decalogo de Juanito ', it was supposedly written before the 1979-80 European Cup quarter-final second leg against Celtic, when Madrid came back from 2-0 down to win 3-0.
The list is going to be raised a lot over the next few days, and it go as follows: start talking about destroying the opposition in the second leg as soon as you get on the bus back after the first leg; remind everyone every day you are going to win, and write it on the dressing-room wall; intimidate the opposition before the match by looking them in the eyes, to make them think you might be capable of anything; choose to kick off if you win the coin toss in order to have the first kick; immediately get into the opposition area and create what feels like a chance, to get the crowd going; commit the game's first foul and make it hard; have the first shot of the match, and make it noisy; come out early after half-time so the opposition arrive to see you ready; don't let the opposition into your half; maintain maximum intensity, with the crowd immersed.
Madrid are going to try to do much of this on Wednesday. None of it means it's any kind of guarantee. That's just what Madrid try to make you think. To do this, they are going to have to work, and they collectively ran 12km less than Arsenal in the first leg.
There have similarly been 23 first-leg defeats that Madrid haven't recovered from in their European history, with 20 coming in the European Cup and Champions League. Ruud Gullit said before Milan humbled them 5-0 in 1988-89 that you had to remember you were playing the team, not the shirt.
Arsenal are going to need to play a game where they have a 3-0 lead, not Madrid's idea of an occasion.