Even on the night Real Madrid may have wrapped up La Liga, it was all about Europe. On Saturday, the day Paris Saint-Germain were losing 1-0 at Nice, Carlo Ancelotti’s team produced possibly their best performance of the season. Coming from a goal down, they defeated Real Sociedad 4-1 at a noisy Santiago Bernabéu where well after the final whistle the players came back out to greet their fans and a defiant chant went round, a message of hope. “Sí, se puede!” it ran. “Yes, we can!”
They weren’t talking about being able to win the league. Having just pulled eight points clear of Sevilla – a lead never overturned at this stage of the season – that seems likely now. Instead, they were talking about being able to turn round the 1-0 deficit from the first leg against PSG. This, after all is the competition that truly measures them and obsesses the 13-times winners of the European Cup.
