El Juvenil, before its triple roof

The fourth time is the charm. Raúl's Youth reaches the semifinals that are Madrid's historic ceiling in the young Youth League. In the previous six editions of the competition, three have been the times in which the whites have been in Nyon (normally only the final four) and three times they have returned from Switzerland at the first exchange rate. The pupils of the 7 they want the seventh to be the first white in a record that Chelsea and Barcelona dominate, with two titles each. Salzburg and Porto are the other two teams that have conquered it. Curiously, Madrid, which is the only club that has reached the round of 16 in the seven editions, leaves its executioners cursed: none were champions.

Benfica (2013-2014)

In the first edition, Benfica of the now Valencian player Guedes cruelly put an end to the illusions of Marcos Llorente's generation, whom Ramis trained. 4-0 in a game that was conditioned by the early expulsion at 14 minutes of Jaime Sánchez (now at Sabadell). Munir's Barça (0-3 with his double) knocked down the benfiquistas in the final.

PSG (2015-2016)

Two years later the generation of '97, the Mayoral generation, under Ramis' command tried it. PSG, who had already faced in the group stage, endorsed them the return ticket prematurely. Mayoral equaled the initial goal at Achraf's own door, an outstanding student of the 96th litter. The Parisians unbalanced the crossing with two goals in the last six minutes (1-3).

Benfica again (2016-2017)

Achraf would have the opportunity to retaliate the following year accompanied by Valverde and Óscar Rodríguez, among others, and with Guti on the bench. Once again Benfica, who was already winning 0-3 after 20 minutes with a double from João Félix, extinguished the dream of Madrid, who got to 2-3 before Benfica closed 2-4 in discount. Salzburg (1-2) enforced Bela Guttmann's famous curse in the final. The Hungarian coach, the architect of the two European Cups that the Lisbon team won in the early 1960s, predicted, after being fired for asking for a salary increase, that without him Benfica would not win a European title in 100 years. Not even the juveniles have been spared the bad omen, which goes for 58 seasons …

The damn result

Returning to Madrid, that 2-4 has also been the cursed result of the whites in the Youth League. Chelsea endorsed it two years ago (17-18) in the quarterfinal crossing played at the Di Stéfano (with controversy over a goal blue with the hand) and Hoffenheim last season in the same round, but in Germany. It was also the final score resulting from adding the match and the penalties (1-1 plus 1-3) in the second round of the 14-15, when they lost in the second round against Porto. The only defeat this season, in the group stage against Galatasaray, was precisely because of that result.