Pressure is on Real Madrid and Zidane as they bid for Champions League hat-trick
Such has been Real Madrid’s domination of the Uefa Champions League, you have to go back almost three years to find the last team to eliminate them from the competition.
That team was tonight’s opponents, Juventus, the Italian side who prevented a Barcelona v Real Madrid final in 2015 after beating Madrid in the semi-final.
The Italians’ 2-1 victory in Turin proved decisive after a defensive masterclass in the Bernabeu secured a draw in the second leg.
Juventus have been champions of Europe twice, but they have been beaten finalists seven times – twice against Real Madrid in 1998 and in the 2017 Cardiff final, when Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice in a 4-1 win.
Ronaldo, who has found a rich vein of form in 2018, has scored seven goals in five games for Madrid against Juventus, powered Madrid to victory in the second half, and Zinedine Zidane will look to him again for inspiraton tonight.
No team had successfully defended the European Cup since 1990 until Zidane’s men prevailed at Cardiff in June.
They can now become the first side since Bayern Munich’s trio of successes between 1974 and 1976 to do three on the trot if they can go on to win this year’s final in May in Kiev.
But Madrid and Zidane are under serious pressure.
Out of the Primera Liga title race before the halfway point and eliminated from the Copa del Rey after a humiliating home defeat to Leganes, they need to win the competition to ease the disastisfaction with Zidane’s second full year in charge of the club.
The Frenchman remains popular and very successful after winning the Spanish, European and World titles in 2016, but this is a club who fired Vicente del Bosque after he had led Madrid to the 2002 European Cup.
Zidane is well aware of what is at stake for his future job prospects.
“Here we depend on the results, it has not changed, it will not change, it is the requirement of this club and I accept it,” he said, speaking before the weekend’s game at Las Palmas. “I’ve been here 18 years, I know how Real Madrid functions.
“I do what I like doing, I do it thoroughly and if the question is, do you want to continue?
“Then, yes, I will continue. I do not feel tired, not at all.”
It is telling of the expectations that Zidane and his players face that his job is in question despite winning a club-record five trophies in 2017, the last of which came in December in Abu Dhabi at the Fifa Club World Cup.
They rested several of their best players for the 3-0 away win Las Palmas including Ronaldo, Sergio Ramos, Marcelo and Toni Kroos, all with the aim of having all their focus on the Champions League and the showdown with Juventus.
History says winning the competition still might not be enough to save Zidane, given their limp Primera Liga title defence, but it will certainly help.