Could This Be The Greatest Comeback In Football History?

Okay, this is not the greatest comeback in football history, rather it is the greatest comeback in Spanish football history. Actually, the comeback is not accomplished yet: Real Madrid are still four points behind FC Barcelona in second place in the Spanish first division table and even a win on Saturday in el clasico would reduce the point deficit to only one point, implying that Barcelona would still have the mathematical advantage, and it is improbable that Madrid would be able to beat Barcelona by three goals at the Bernabeu, so on head-to-head Barcelona would be ahead.

But statistics should not undermine what has been a sensational but awkwardly prosaic second half of the league season for Real Madrid. After Juande Ramos’ first league match in charge, Madrid went 12 points behind Barcelona and went out of a UEFA Champions League spot. The Blancos were already nine points behind when he took over and the 12 point gap was all too coming. Before long, Ramos had to see the man who had appointed him leave in abysmal fashion: club president Ramon Calderon resigned after allegations of vote-rigging were thrown in his face. Sporting director Predrag Mijatovic too appeared to be heading out and the man who came in by the name of Vicente Boluda was the club’s vice-president and soon started (reportedly) inviting former president Florentino Perez to the ‘White House.’

The squad was and still is, severely depleted. Top striker Ruud van Nistelrooy was out, so was Mahamadou Diarra, Ruben de la Red had collapsed because of a heart condition, Arjen Robben was on and off the medic's table and Christoph Metzelder hardly looked he would ever string together five successive starts. Madrid’s football had been erratic, they had been scoring goals but had been conceding them too and conceding them in robust style. The midfield lacked, and lacks, a world class playmaker in the Zinedine Zidane mould and squad morale was low.

Since that clasico defeat, though, Madrid have turned the corner. They might have failed in Europe again at the last 16 stage, suffered a humiliating 4-0 defeat at Anfield in the second leg of their UEFA Champions League tie, but 17 wins in 18 league matches have pushed them from a side apparently struggling for top four survival to a team that can just about win the league, even if that be in the final minute of the season. Between that clasico and now, Barcelona have collected 44 points from a possible 54, implying that if the league race was to be considered during this period of time, Madrid would win the title.

Not that Madrid have played eye-pleasing football. Perhaps it was a case of damage control when Ramos tookover the reins of the biggest club in the world and perhaps all that the management wanted was to make the team compete more thoroughly and try and win (!) the UEFA Champions League. Perhaps they were apprehensive that the season was over even before the half-way point had been reached.

Frankly, Madrid's football has been pretty much un-Madrid-esque. This is the club that played some of the most orgasmic football ever seen, both in the second half of the 1950s and the first half the Galactico era in the 21st century. Compared to that, football under Ramos, who had based his Sevilla side on a Premier League model, has been pretty much coma-inducing. December’s clasico was one of the dirtiest matches anywhere in Europe in which Lionel Messi was picked on by virtually all the Madrid players, but each took care to boot him alternately.

In 19 league matches under Ramos Real Madrid have scored 44 goals and have conceded a miserly 11, keeping a clean sheet 12 times. Ramos has build his team from the back, making sure Sergio Ramos doesn’t go bull fighting on the right flank and Pepe, now of course out for the rest of the season, and Fabio Cannavaro play to his tactics. The best player for Madrid since January has been a certain Lassana Diarra, who has played as a defensive midfielder, and for the first time since a certain Claude Makelele was so ridiculously booted out in 2003, have the Blancos seen a truly capable anchorman in midfield; Fernando Gago’s only weakness is that he cannot play to his potential if not played in a double pivot system, Raul has been anonymous at times but still has scored 18 goals in the league, Marcelo has been a revelation with his defensive side intact and Klass-Jan Huntelaar has scored 8 goals in 11 starts.

But the bloke who has been truly showing his class and showing it consistently is a certain Gonzalo Higuain. His arrival from River Plate in the middle of the 2006-2007 season was hardly a media engaging news as he was thought to be good but not great. But in his very first season at the Bernabeu, he played the role of a supersub, a makeshift right-winger, scoring against Atletico Madrid and Espanyol.

Last season Pipita started only seven league matches and scored 8 goals. This season he has started 27 matches so far and has 18 league goals. It was his last minute left-footed banger against Getafe two weeks ago that reminded all Liga followers of a certain 2006-2007 season in which Madrid came from behind against Real Mallora on the last day of the season to win the league for the first time in four years.

That season too Fabio Capello's Madrid played coma-inducing football, but then again, what would the Spaniards expect from a man they consider the archetypal of Italian hardliners? But towards the business end of 2006-2007, the Madridistas were treated to better football with some sensational comebacks.

Madrid's football has improved in the last three or four matches this season. They might have won by the narrowest of margins against Recreativo Huelva but Gago’s defence splitting through ball and Marcelo’s sweet shot were unalloyed poetry, the Getafe match was heart-stopping and the comeback win against Sevilla was deeply absorbing.

Perhaps the title race hinges on the result of Saturday’s match, the biggest in world football, yes even bigger than the Superclasico. Of course, even a win would not be enough for Real Madrid, if Barcelona win the rest of their Liga matches, and perhaps from purist and moral points of view, Barcelona do 'deserve' the title. They have, after all, played the most entertaining football anywhere on the planet, played football the way it is meant to be played.

Maybe Madrid should get something from this season after this amazing turnaround. They have been in crisis both on the pitch and off it, been termed a "mob" and have played a brand of football light years from their traditional style, but then again, they couldn't do anything about that, could they?

Subhankar Mondal