Real Madrid’s Champions League ‘aura’, embodied by Jude Bellingham, is ultimate test of character for Arsenal | Football Newsnews24

“Remontada,” said Jude Bellingham with a smile.

The Real Madrid midfielder had been asked for the word he had heard most in the dressing room ahead of Wednesday’s second leg against Arsenal. He didn’t have to think twice. The Spanish phrase, meaning comeback, is on everybody’s lips in Madrid.

The mood among fans and players in the Spanish capital is almost implausibly positive. Tuning into a local radio phone-in before Bellingham’s press conference on Tuesday made that clear. A 5-1 home win was a popular prediction. Some were more conservative. They thought the hosts might need extra-time.

Bellingham didn’t go quite that far but his confidence was clear. “It’s a night that is made for Real Madrid,” he said. “You can’t come into games like this thinking there is going to be anything other than a comeback. There’s a pressure but that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?”

The last line was delivered with a shrug. As was Kylian Mbappe’s “of course we can” when asked if Real Madrid could still progress in the mixed zone after last week’s first leg at the Emirates Stadium.

The holders were deservedly beaten 3-0 in that game, by the way. You wouldn’t know it to listen to them now.

Their messaging is part of the club’s fabled decálago de la remontada, an effective how-to guide for second-leg European comebacks written by club legend Juanito before he helped them overturn a two-goal first-leg deficit to beat Celtic in the European Cup quarter-finals in 1980.

It details the importance of generating belief in the comeback immediately, starting by talking about it on the team bus after the first leg, then building into the game itself, harnessing the atmosphere inside the Bernabeu during the warm-up, using intimidatory tactics in the tunnel, and making the early stages as uncomfortable for the opponent as possible.

Arsenal have all that to come on Wednesday night. Meanwhile, Real Madrid continue to read from their playbook. No expense has been spared on the club’s Hollywood-style motivational videos, featuring clips from recent comebacks against Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City and Bayern Munich.

The videos certainly make for emotive viewing. “It’s really motivating stuff,” said Bellingham. They are also a reminder of the aura this young Arsenal side will be up against at the Bernabeu.

Real Madrid have the weight of history behind them, as well as the quality of Mbappe, Vinicius Jr and the rest. “We have all the resources we need to turn the tie around,” said Carlo Ancelotti.

But there is a difference between those ties and this one, and that is the extent of Arsenal’s lead. Even Real Madrid, kings of the comeback, with their storied history in Europe, have not overturned a three-goal first-leg deficit in the Champions League era.

Nor are they anything like as strong as they were in winning the competition to complete a treble last season. They only lost once in 54 games in all competitions in that campaign. Last week’s defeat at the Emirates Stadium was their 11th in 53 games in the current one.

They are also facing a formidable opponent in this Arsenal side, whose European campaign has been a different story to their domestic one. Mikel Arteta’s side breezed through the league phase. They have only conceded six goals in 11 games in total. No team in the competition has limited their opponents to fewer shots or fewer expected goals per game.

Such resilience is nothing new. Arsenal have not lost by a four-goal margin since a 4-0 defeat by Liverpool at Anfield in November 2021. You have to go back 100 games, to a 4-3 win at Luton in December 2023, for the last time they conceded more than two.

They showed their defensive strength in keeping a clean sheet in the first leg, although there were examples of just how dangerous Real Madrid can be. Arsenal needed David Raya to deny Mbappe, who also fired over from another good chance in the first half.

Bellingham mentioned those opportunities, even in the context of Real Madrid’s poor performance, as cause for optimism in his press conference on Tuesday. Raya, meanwhile, was the chosen player to carry Arsenal’s message at theirs, repeating a desire to win the game, as well as the tie.

“We have to think about ourselves and what we can control on the pitch with the ball,” he said in response to a question about dealing with the atmosphere inside the stadium. “We need to have the conviction that we can be better than them and win the game,” added Arteta.

It remains to be seen whether the talk of playing to win, rather than simply hold out, will ring true on the pitch but it offers Arsenal’s most likely route to success. All the talk in the build-up to the game has been around the importance of an early Real Madrid goal but Arsenal could kill the tie with one of their own.

They should believe in their capacity to score it, especially against a Real Madrid side who have conceded first in 18 games in all competitions this season, including, of course, last week’s.

Arsenal are unlikely to have the same territorial dominance as they did at the Emirates Stadium. They will doubtless have to withstand heavy pressure at times. But their set-piece strength is always a weapon and they are a growing threat in transition too.

Their goal in the 1-1 draw against Brentford on Saturday, scored by Thomas Partey after an exhilarating break led by Declan Rice, was their ninth from a fast break in the Premier League this season. It is more than in any previous campaign under Arteta.

That level of counter-attacking threat, with Gabriel Martinelli in form on one flank and Bukayo Saka fit again on the other, is another potential difference-maker for them at the Bernabeu.

But that is only if they can hold their nerve in the face of the unwavering belief of a European opponent unlike any other.