Nineteen days later, Real Madrid fly back to Lisbon to try again. For all the drama, for all that Benfica’s goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin rose through the rain to head an astonishing 98th-minute goal and José Mourinho raced up the line with his arms around a ballboy, everyone in the Estádio da Luz losing their minds; for all that Álvaro Arbeloa’s team “crashed out” of the top eight, the biggest club of all have a second chance. Which is, of course, the way the Champions League is designed. So here they go again and things are better now. But they thought that back then, too.
What followed, as one headline had it, was a “total write-off”, Madrid not just beaten 4-2 but battered. Trubin’s late goal, the moment of the competition, changed everything for Benfica but didn’t really alter Madrid’s fate; already destined for the playoffs, it just deepened the “shame”, in Kylian Mbappé’s words. Three weeks on, they meet again on Tuesday in Lisbon – Madrid against Benfica, Mourinho against “my boy” – with an opportunity to start over, some hope and enthusiasm allowed back in. A little easily perhaps, renewed belief built on not much and yet to withstand a proper test, but there may be something in it.
