Real Madrid stands at the abyss. Arbeloa must escape it, no matter what. That mission starts Wednesday in Munich. The result will define the club's season and Arbeloa's career.
Real Madrid's return after the international break has turned the match in Munich into a tremendous final. Not a single win in three matches has left Arbeloa's men with the league practically conceded, with seven rounds remaining, and with the Champions League on the line to achieve something unprecedented in their history: coming back to win a tie after losing the first leg at home.
The draws against Mallorca and Girona, along with the 2-1 loss to Bayern in Chamartin, have placed Madrid on the edge of an abyss. A crisis of results that, if they do not win at the Allianz, could send them back to 2018: to the collapse that swept away Julen Lopetegui's brief project.
After a strong start, the first post-Zidane Madrid entered an irreversible crisis. The emergency appendectomy that Isco underwent coincided with a streak of five matches without a win: four losses (Sevilla, Alaves, Levante, and CSKA) and a 0-0 draw in the derby.
Lopetegui emerged from that crisis with a poisoned two-match truce. He won the first, 2-1 against Viktoria Plzen, and was sent off in the 5-1 loss at Camp Nou. Since then, Madrid has not gone more than three matches without a win again. On that limit, they face the extremely demanding visit to the Bavarian capital.
With the season now only dependent on the Champions League, Madrid's loss tally rises to 12, only two fewer than last season. Without a win, the number stands at 17, compared to 21 from the previous campaign. No trace remains of the team that, in 2023/24, was both league and European champion, with only two losses in the 55 matches they played.
If the focus is only on Europe, last season, Ancelotti's Madrid said goodbye with six losses in the 14 matches they played. This season, there are four on the verge of reaching that same number of matches. Neither last season nor this one has had any draws in Madrid's European journey.
Now it comes down to this: can Arbeloa turn things around against Bayern on Wednesday night? That match is everything. Win, and they save the season, keeping their Champions League dream alive. Lose, and they end the year with nothing to add to the trophy case.
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