“Real Madrid vs. Manchester City: Will the Era of Champions League Domination Come to an End?”

It’s possible that something will come to an end this Wednesday at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester: the era of a great team that shaped the European football circuit for a decade, with great games and lavish parties. Real Madrid Club de Fútbol has won the Champions League five times in ten years. In the finals in Lisbon, Milan, Kiev, Cardiff and last year in Paris, but will it be enough for a final da capo in Istanbul on June 10th? After the 1-1 draw in the semifinals at home against Manchester City a week ago, that’s very questionable.

Dani Carvajal, Karim Benzema and Luka Modric are all that remain of the team that began their triumphant march through Europe in September 2013 with a 6-1 group stage win at Galatasaray Istanbul. Toni Kroos only joined a year later from Munich. Others like Cristiano Ronaldo and Iker Casillas have moved on or quit. Carlo Ancelotti, the bon vivant on the coaching bench, returned two years ago. During his first term in office, Real, as number three in Spain, was not necessarily predestined for the really big hit.

When the job was done after a dramatic final in Lisbon and the pot was back in the possession of the biggest, craziest and most successful club in the world for the first time since 2002, the Italian maestro was the focus of a highly amusing procession. He was lecturing in camera light on the 4-1 win in the Madrid final derby against Atlético when his players Sami Khedira, Isco, Luka Modric, Marcelo, Sergio Ramos and Pepe took the stage. All together they laughed and danced and sang: “Campeones, Campeones!” Isco splashed around with a water bottle and the fat, jovial Ancelotti banged his fist on the table in time. “Campeones, Campeones!”

Was that really Real Madrid? The world club with the license to be aloof? The aloof football company that had previously explored new abysses of unpopularity in three years under Ancelotti’s predecessor, José Mourinho? It was a new, carefree and easy Real that celebrated its Decima in Lisbon – the tenth victory in the Champions League, which used to be called the European Cup of Champions in the days of Alfredo di Stefano and Ferenc Puskás.

Real Madrid were a worthy champion. One who worked hard for the luck of victory, against the odds late on, and an opponent who, once in the lead, was as damn hard to beat as anyone else. “We were already dead,” said the German national player Khedira at night in the catacombs of the Estadio da Luz. But then, in the third of five minutes of overtime, a last corner kick flew into the penalty area. And Sergio Ramos, Real’s outstanding central defender, who could have headed a wing out of the penalty area with perfect elegance, heaved the ball into the goal with his forehead to make it 1-1.

Atlético was then as dead as Real had previously been according to Khedira’s definition. There was nothing more. Gareth Bale’s goal to make it 2-1 midway through the second half of extra time robbed Diego Simeone’s guerrillas of any hope of a final penalty shoot-out. There were two more goals from substitute Marcelo and Cristiano Ronaldo, but those were only relevant for the record. Atlético mourned and Real celebrated the beginning of an era that no one suspected at the time. It might end on Wednesday.