Real Madrid suffered a humiliating exit from the Champions League with an incredible 4-1 loss to Ajax, plunging the Spanish giants into their biggest crisis for many years.
The Bernabeu club’s season is now effectively over, with two losses against Barcelona ending their hopes in domestic competition and now their dreams of securing a fourth consecutive European crown shot to pieces in a sensational capitulation.
There will clearly be huge reverberations and ramifications, and the post-mortem is likely to run for many weeks as the explanations for a completely disastrous season are sought.
So what happens now? Where does this leave Real Madrid? Let’s consider the consequences.
Solari out?
With half an hour played, Madrid boss Santi Solari must have been looking up to the heavens and wondering what he had possibly done to deserve such ill fortune. Not only had his team fallen 2-0 behind on the night, 3-2 on aggregate, but he had also lost both his starting wingers with Lucas Vazquez and Vinicius Junior both forced off through injury.
Solari had a pair of ready-made top-quality alternatives available in the form of Gareth Bale and Marco Asensio, who have been first-choice starters on many occasions over the last couple of seasons and had a point to prove after being relegated to the bench.
The holders are OUT! @GullitR & @marceldesailly don't think Solari can survive as coach much longer...#beINUCL #UCL #RMAAJA 📺 HD1https://t.co/YdgHvwgz7F pic.twitter.com/gyuineEx53
— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS) March 5, 2019
But there was no improvement in fortunes for his team and Solari must now be in serious and imminent danger of the axe. Jose Mourinho, in particular, has been heavily linked with the Bernabeu hotseat and that speculation will inevitably increase. Perhaps the main question is how can Solari possibly survive after suffering two Clasico defeats and a humiliating Champions League exit in the space of a week. But is Mourinho available now? If not, who can step in? Raul? Fernando Hierro? Or can Solari stay? We’ll find out soon.
Ramos under fire
Madrid skipper Sergio Ramos was missing from the encounter after collecting a booking in the first leg, but it was a self-inflicted absence after he deliberately forced a yellow card in the dying stages after his team took the lead.
Ramos obviously felt that the job was already more or less done with a 2-1 advantage from the meeting in Amsterdam, but his pride most certainly came before a fall as his team-mates dramatically failed to finish the job they had started.
It’s debatable whether the outcome would have been different if Ramos had been playing, because he has been far from impressive in the last few weeks. But with his team desperate to maintain their chances of retaining the title, surely the presence of the emblematic and fearless warrior leader would have been a blessing. Expect plenty of tough questions to be thrown in Ramos’s direction in the next few days, and a show of public contrition from the defender certainly would not go amiss.
How far can Ajax go?
All the headlines will be about Real Madrid, but more than a few words should be said about Ajax, who were simply magnificent and fully deserved their stunning victory.
Now the question is: how far can they go? Was this their grand final, the summit of their achievements, or will they somehow find a way to regather their senses and physical strength for similar heroics in the quarter-finals?
On an individual level, there will be plenty of speculation over the future of several players in the next few weeks. Frenkie de Jong has already pledged his future to Barcelona, and looks well worth that move, while central defender Matthijs de Ligt and forward Dusan Tadic will certainly have raised a few eyebrows with sensational displays.
For now, though, the task for the Dutch club is to forget about the future and focus on what they may yet achieve this season. And after this showing one thing is certain: nobody will take them lightly in the quarter-finals.
