Football has a bad memory, but bad seasons leave their mark. He Real Madrid will return to the Camp Nou carrying a campaign that has been falling apart. Eliminated from the Cup, with Bayern waiting for them in the Champions League with an advantage already nine points behind a Barça that is aiming for a new league title. Little more at stake than honor in the face of an insurmountable distance. For those from Arbeloa, penance passes through Barcelona.
The end may be May 10. Barça could reach that Clásico with a nine-point lead and the same number of games played as Madrid. Before, both have three league games: The culés host Celta and will travel to Getafe and Pamplona; The whites play at home against Alavés, visit Betis and Espanyol. If both win all three, the Classic arrives with the difference of nine points intact, which I would proclaim Barça champion if they win in their fiefdom. If Madrid makes a mistake in one of theirs and Barça hurries up theirs, the windfall could come even before that weekend.
A Classic worth a League.
Taking into account the mathematics, so that the Camp Nou is not the scene of the alirón, Madrid needs to win its three previous games and hope that Barça stumbles at least once. Only in that case would the Clásico arrive without a title at stake for the culés. Any other scenario, any failure by Madrid or additional victory by Barça, brings the crown closer to Barcelona before or during the night of the Classic. Every day that passes without Madrid cutting points, the miracle gets a little further away.
The hallway, in the air
If the white debacle continues and Flick’s men sing the alirón before the Clásico, Madrid would return to the Camp Nou with more than just a game ahead of them: the hallway dilemma. The only precedent in that stadium is from 1988, when Barça applauded the Quinta del Buitre as league champion. In 2018 the situation was the reverse. Madrid visited the Camp Nou with Barça already champion and Zidane resolved it with one sentence. “We are not going to make the passage to Barça, it is my decision”he sentenced.
Corridor from Barça to Madrid in 2008.PAUL GARCIA
But before the gestures, there is the game. Arbeloa’s Madrid has the Champions League left to save – Bayern won 1-2 at the Bernabéu – and a League that already belongs to Barça barring catastrophe. If the ballot in the Champions League is not resolved, the Classic could be the last blow in a campaign to forget. Without a cushion, without authority and with the ghost of a season that has been unraveling since that Super Cup in January.
