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The Spanish giants were caught cold by Borussia Dortmund in their semi-final first leg last week, when, despite being one of the favourites to step out at Wembley on May 25, they were left on the brink of a surprise elimination.
Since their return to Spain, Real have delved into their extensive archives to dig up past examples of heroic fight-backs to convince fans and players of tonight’s second-leg possibilities.
Real have overturned an identical scoreline once before in Europe’s elite club competition, against Derby in 1975.
Charlie George scored a hat-trick for the English champions in a 4-1 second-round triumph at the Baseball Ground, and he scored again in the return leg at the Bernabeu.
However, a Real side which included current Spain boss Vicente del Bosque levelled the tie to force extra-time, and striker Santillana struck a 100th-minute decider for a famous 5-1 victory, to progress 6-5 on aggregate.
“The games against Derby and Borussia Moenchengladbach (a similar comeback in the Uefa Cup) were incredible games,” Santillana told sports daily Marca. “The Bernabeu, if you light the match, burns everything.”
Much of Real’s hope of a comeback rests with Cristiano Ronaldo, who missed the city derby against Atletico Madrid in La Liga on Saturday, when a second-string side triumphed 2-1 at the Calderon.
Ronaldo is the Champions League’s leading scorer with 12 goals and has netted 51 times in 50 games for his club so far this season, but picked up a muscle problem in Dortmund and trained apart from the group again on Sunday.
Real will be wary of launching a cavalry charge at a Dortmund side unbeaten on their travels in Europe this year as it would leave their shaky defence even more exposed than usual.
They have the leakiest back-line of the four teams remaining with 18 goals conceded, and have kept only one clean sheet in the competition so far.
The second leg is also a challenge to Real coach Jose Mourinho’s prestige as failure to progress from a third successive Champions League semi-final would test the patience of club president Florentino Perez.
With the La Liga title about to fall to Barcelona, and Real’s European campaign hanging by a thread, next month’s King’s Cup final might end up representing Mourinho’s last chance for major silverware this season.
On Saturday, Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp made 10 changes to the team that beat Real but they lacked none of their usual spark as they eased past Fortuna Duesseldorf 2-1 to tighten their hold on second spot with three games left in their domestic season.
“With 10 changes it was not very easy but we are pros and need to accept it,” captain Sebastian Kehl said on Saturday.
“We wanted to win to secure second spot and fill up on confidence ahead of Tuesday (today).”
Dortmund, who last week made sure of a Champions League group spot for next season, are looking to reach their first final since winning the trophy in 1997.
Klopp will have a full squad to choose from with midfielder Nuri Sahin’s Saturday showing, which included the first goal, possibly earning him a starting spot against the team he joined from Dortmund in 2011.
“People had been saying for weeks there is only one team in Germany that can rotate and still win games,” said club CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke, in reference to fellow semi-finalists Bayern Munich, who are 4-0 up going into their second leg against Barcelona tomorrow.
“I am delighted that it has now worked for us twice in a row and to be able to show people that we have players who can do it.”
Meanwhile, Mourinho has called on his side to be more ruthless when they face Borussia Dortmund in the second-leg of their Champions League semi-final tonight.
Madrid need an incredible comeback after four goals from Robert Lewandowski helped the Germans romp to a 4-1 victory in the first-leg last week and Mourinho believes his side have to perform with the type of aggression they did in the 2-1 win over Atletico Madrid on Saturday.
“The team was naive. We played against a player that scored four goals and wasn’t fouled in the whole game, whilst Cristiano (Ronaldo) was fouled five times and the game had barely begun. It was like we were playing a friendly.
“Mentally and physically we need to be stronger. At the Calderon on Saturday I saw a team that knew how to suffer and defend. A team that was compact, united, aggressive and worked towards an objective.”
However, Mourinho insisted that the outcome of the second-leg would not have an effect on his future at the club. “My future won’t depend on that. At practically all clubs, not just Madrid, the success is thanks to the players and the failure is that of the manager.
“We have 90 minutes to play and we are 4-1 down. What I am concerned with is analysing what happened in Dortmund and what we have to do tomorrow (today).
“The game in Dortmund was so bad that I am not concerned about them, I am concerned about what we have to do better.
“No player is hiding, we are all in the same boat and all of them want to play, which gives me confidence and hope for the game. In football everything is possible.”
Mourinho confirmed that Ronaldo trained yesterday morning and will play despite continuing to feel the after effects of a thigh injury picked up in the first-leg last Wednesday.
Alvaro Arbeloa and Marcelo remain Real’s only two absentees through injury, but the return of Michael Essien means that he could line up at right-back with Sergio Ramos moving into central defence after the torrid time Lewandowski gave Pepe last week.
And Ramos said he will play in whatever position is best for the side, although he feels more comfortable at centre-back.
“In the past few years I have played as a centre-back, it gives me more control of the game. Due to the circumstances I had to play at full-back and it wasn’t a problem.
“I have won the European Championships and the World Cup playing there. The manager will look at what is best for the team to decide where I should play.”
Ramos had criticised Madrid’s attitude in the wake of the match last week and he echoed Mourinho’s sentiments that they need to be more aggressive on home soil.
“The other day when I spoke of attitude I meant our intensity, aggression and rhythm of our game wasn’t as it should have been. If we have greater intensity and rhythm it will be less of a problem but it is still a very negative result to overturn and will be very difficult.
“We can’t take away the credit from Dortmund, they played a great game and deserved to win but the other day we didn’t win personal duels that we normally do.”
Teams (probable)
Real Madrid: 41-Diego Lopez; 4-Sergio Ramos, 3-Pepe, 2-Raphael Varane, 5-Fabio Coentrao; 6-Sami Khedira, 14-Xabi Alonso; 22-Angel Di Maria, 10-Mesut Ozil, 7-Cristiano Ronaldo; 20-Gonzalo Higuain
Borussia Dortmund: 1-Roman Weidenfeller; 26-Lukasz Piszczek, 4-Neven Subotic, 15-Mats Hummels, 29-Marcel Schmelzer; 8-Ilkay Guendogan, 18-Nuri Sahin; 16-Jakub Blaszczykowski, 10-Mario Goetze, 11-Marco Reus; 9-Robert Lewandowski. — Soccernet.
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