Hope is the last thing you lose. This is what both Zidane and a large part of the white expedition must have thought when they learned that the Inter Milan had given them a last bullet to access the knockout phase of the Champions League by defeating Borussia in their stadium (2-3): to date, the Whites have passed the league stage in all the editions in which they have participated.
But nevertheless, not all have been an easy ride (There have been, for example, in the 2014-15 campaign, the whites won all six games with a full triumph, with 18 points won, 16 goals scored and only two conceded). There have been three cases in which the Whites played the pass in the last match of the league phase to be able to go to the round.
The first two came in the 1999-2000 and 2002-2003 editions. In both, UEFA modified the original structure so that more matches were held: two qualifying groups were played before the knockout phase was played. In the final stretch of 1999, the Whites made it through the first round without any problems before falling into the round of 16 with Dynamo Kiev from Ukraine, Rosenborg from Norway, and Bayern Munich from Germany. After starting well (two wins against Ukrainians and Nordics), he was beaten by the Bavarian team (2-4 in Madrid and 4-1 in the Munich capital). A draw at the Bernabéu against Dinamo left everything open for the last day: the whites would face Rosenborg in Nordic lands, while in Kiev, the locals would face Bayern. On a hectic night, the whites beat Rosenborg by the minimum (goal by Raúl), with a team in which Aganzo appeared along with his own seven at the tip of the attack. While in Kiev, the locals defeated the Germans 2-0… At the end of the day, Madridistas and Ukrainians had 10 points, but the triumph of the whites on the first day placed them in second position in Group C. They agreed to the quarters: they would face Manchester United, which they would eliminate. That year they would raise the Eighth by defeating Valencia in the first Champions League final between two teams from the same country.
Champions League
* Data updated as of December 2, 2020
The second time would come in 2002. After a highly disputed first league with Roma (a goal by Centeno, a Greek AEK player, would give the Madridistas first place), the second would have its crumb: up to three teams (Milan, Madrid and Dortmund) would fight for two places: would finally be for the rossoneri and for the madridistas. A goal by Portillo in Dortmund in the 91st minute left them two heart-stopping games. In the first, the whites defeated Milan at the Bernabéu (3-1), in what was the return of Redondo and Seedorf to the capital of Spain, while Borussia liquidated Lokomotiv Moscow comfortably (3-0). Everything would be decided on the last day: the whites visited the Moscow city, while the Italians, already classified as first in the group, received the Germans. Those of Del Bosque would win by the minimum thanks to a goal from Ronaldo Nazario with a header (minute 35). It would not be until the final stage when everything would get complicated: Jan Koller, the Czech giant of 2.02 meters, marked for Dortmund just when the Moscow team was shaking the goal of Casillas the most. The Madrid goalkeeper would stop three shots from the local team to secure the three points. Del Bosque, a white coach, would define the game as “the most difficult victory in recent years.”
The last time Madrid secured the pass was in the 2009-10 campaign, in the league phase, with a group made up of Milan, Olympique de Marseille and Zurich. On the fourth day, the Whites and the Milanese were in the lead tied at seven points, with the Marseille team third, with six. Matchday five saw Pellegrini's men defeat Zurich, while Italians and French equalized at San Siro. On the final matchday, the whites led the group with 10 points, followed by Milan (eight points) and Marseille (seven). Precisely, the whites played in the Mediterranean city, while the Swiss received the transalpinos. But the whites had no choice: led by a phenomenal Cristiano (he scored two goals), they beat the Italians who only managed to draw (1-1). The whites thus agreed to the round of 16, where they would be eliminated by Olympique de Lyon.
After the loss to Shakhtar, the Whites are back on the edge of the abyss. They have already been in those circumstances and have come out of them all. Wednesday is another spin on the roulette wheel. We will see if the pass to the eighth for the Whites comes out or is eliminated …