Why history matters in football

When the end was near, they found their voices, a large wall of rolling noise getting louder and louder. Real Madrid were down and on their way out but the Santiago Bernabeu was a fortress of determined, unyielding belief in the primacy of history and its superiority over cold, clear logic.

There was no sense to this game by the end, a game in which Real Madrid had no foothold and Manchester City revelled in control. The 88th minute was just the beginning for Madrid, the start of their mere, yet sheer, name weighing down on City.

Football is about emotions and chaos and sometimes this is the antithesis to Man City’s chess-like grip of games. Madrid were outplayed for the sixth game running in the Champions League but survived. It doesn’t make sense why certain clubs have this mystique in Europe around the comeback, around the remontada. Madrid have it, as do others like Liverpool.

Comebacks happen a lot in football but some stand out because they take place against logic, odds and the evidence of outclassed talent. No-one cares about a comeback of where a team is definitively better and shouldn’t really have been losing anyway. It matters more when a team has no right to return from the dead. Madrid have been the epitome of that this season. PSG tormented them in France and then capitulated in Madrid. Chelsea laid a siege yet found…