Madrid (AFP)

The king of the Champions League was almost his gravedigger: yet holder of the coronation record (13), Real Madrid supported the ephemeral and controversial Super League ... before finding, as if nothing had happened , the C1 semi-finals on Tuesday against Chelsea (9:00 p.m.).

The active part taken by Real and its president Florentino Pérez in this private tournament project reserved for the big cars of the continent, which shook world football for 48 hours last week before coming to an end, does not do justice to the privileged relationship between the Madrid club and the "Cup with big ears".

But for now, back to the ordinary: even if UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin has promised sanctions against dissident clubs, Real Madrid have not been excluded from the Champions League and can therefore seek a new final, the fourth in five participations for his coach Zinédine Zidane, three times crowned (2016-2018).

How to explain that the first club to win the European Cup of Champion Clubs in 1956 almost became its gravedigger, almost 70 years later?

Florentino Pérez assured that his intentions were noble ... without convincing his detractors.

"We were just trying to save football", defended the boss of Real Madrid on the Spanish radio Cadena Ser.

Pérez, chosen by his peers as the first president of the commercial company "Super League", assured not to have known "correctly explain" the initiative, supposed to remedy the growing disinterest of the young public for football and the financial difficulties of major European clubs against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic.

- "Football is seriously injured" -

"Football is seriously injured. We have to adapt. This year, with the entire season contested in the midst of a pandemic, the estimated losses amount to between 2 and 2.5 billion euros. The Girondins de Bordeaux have just gone bankrupt . Either we do something, or many other clubs will go bankrupt. (...) Only those who belong to a State or to a multi-millionaire will be able to resist ", detailed Pérez in an interview with the Spanish sports newspaper As, Saturday.

The Super League, a tailor-made project for wealthy clubs, Chelsea believed in it for a while.

But he was one of the first to make the decision to back down, even though the formalization was later than that of other English clubs.

The Blues were directly confronted with the anger of their supporters, ahead of a league game against Brighton.

Petr Cech, the club's iconic former goalkeeper turned leader, must have shouted at the demonstrators and these images were a symbolic turning point in this short but intense battle.

- The C1 "makes you dream" -

A week later, Real and Chelsea are still in contention to win this competition they wanted to leave.

And for Raphaël Varane, it's a tempting prospect: "I won four Champions Leagues, it's a competition that makes me dream," slipped the French international defender Monday at a press conference, discreetly joined by Zidane, very careful on the subject.

"The Champions League is something special, it's true," slipped the Marseillais.

Tuesday there will be a semi-final to go to play, and a final in sight.

For the occasion, Real has recovered Eden Hazard: the former Chelsea star, recruited at the gold price in 2019, came out of his terrible injury tunnel on Saturday to play fifteen minutes at the end of the match against in the draw against Real Betis (0-0) in La Liga.

The Belgian superstar will therefore have a decisive role to play against his former team, while Zinédine Zidane has recovered almost all of his executives just before this continental shock (Varane, Carvajal, Mendy, Kroos, Modric) ... All, except two: Sergio Ramos and Ferland Mendy.

The Madrid captain, great architect of Real's last four successes in the Champions League (2014, 2016, 2017, 2018), was hit in the left calf with Spain at the end of March and contracted the Covid-19 in the wake.

He is not expected to return until May 5, for the semi-final second leg against Chelsea.

And, thumbing his nose at UEFA, one of these two mutinous clubs will play in the Champions League final on May 29 in Istanbul.

It remains to be seen who.

© 2021 AFP