We continue on the canvas – AS.com

Unrecognizable. five months ago, Madrid crowned the Everest of football with a wonderful and academic Champions League, full of unforgettable postcards (the Etihad penalties, Joselu's double against Bayern, Carvajal's great header at Wembley…). A Madrid that filled the news around the world, convinced that the winning gene in this shirt turns them into a kind of superior beings with the ball at their feet. An admirable Madrid that competed with pride, that bit into every divided ball, that celebrated goals like a family, where starters and substitutes shared their egos with a balance that avoided fissures in the locker room. Everyone was rowing in the same direction and it was evident in the brilliant results: Champions League, League and Spanish Super Cup. But Five months later, Madrid is a blurry shadow, without energy, pressing without order and without a sense of solidarity between the lines, with a world star who cannot find the key to his prestige (Mbappé), con a dethroned Ballon d'Or that is still affected by the affront of Paris, with a Bellingham that is not even close to the great player that we fell in love with last year to the rhythm of the Beatles and with an engine room full of cracks. Vean a Tchouameni…

Bad on the 14th. The Frenchman wears the same number as the legendary Casemiro, whom he replaced three seasons ago for he low price of 80 million euros. Just what we had raised for the Brazilian. In his first year he left some doubts, but he more or less delivered. In its second installment, neither fu nor fa. And in this third act It has directly collapsed. Directly involved in the first two goals of Fonseca's surprising Milan, which brought out the colors of a rival who has been lying on the canvas for ten days. Conceding seven goals in two games in a row at the Bernabéu had never been seen before by my white eyes. The defensive weakness of the current champion is frustrating. And it doesn't comfort me to see Guardiola's City and Xabi Alonso's Bayer Leverkusen also in the doldrums. At the moment we are 17th in the standings, while I see Sporting de Portugal, Monaco and Brest above. Something is happening in European football and it is getting out of hand.

Up Valencia. The best thing about the sad evening was the sense and exemplary tribute from the Bernabéu fans to all those good people of Valencia who suffer a nightmare that has us knocked out. The 'We are all Valencia' banner, the giant senyera flag and the minute of silence with the anthem of the Community of Valencia. Flawless. Today has been a difficult day for everyone, but The important thing is that the victims of the tragedy have felt the encouragement of all Spaniards (“the people always save the people”). At this moment I remember Natan, from Benetússer, who has lost several friends in the flood and sees how his little girls cry because the water has taken away the two balls signed by the Real Madrid players. And I do not forget to admire Manuel Mestre, president of the Peña Eurodís de Picanya. His house was next to the bridge that succumbed, dragged by the force of the murderous water. He has been left homeless and the memories of a lifetime are only in his white heart. You have to start from scratch. He has nothing left. Well, yes. The solidarity of his many friends, those peñistas from Honrubia and San Clemente who these days have given him everything he needs, in addition to love, to be able to start a new life. How big is Spain!