The 'Blancos' have been unable to perform at the Estadio Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán or against Sevilla coach Pablo Machín in recent years, seeming to lose sight of even their simple capacities, as once again Sevilla dominated the La Liga giants at home.
Once more Madrid returned home with nothing,after their trip to Sevilla this week ended in spectacular defeat at the home of the 'Blanquirrojos'. This result however,is becoming a familiar ending to matches involving 'La Real', in the immediate aftermath of the Player of the Year awards.
'Misterchip', a Spanish football pundit, recently highlighted the uncanny coincidence over the last few seasons,between Madrid's capitulations in matches that follow the individual success of Madrid stars at the Player of the Year awards .This is the first point of a 'Bermuda triangle' of sorts for Madrid, that also contains Sevilla and their manager.
In recent times, the three defeats suffered by Real Madrid after the 'The Best' awards have occurred at the hands of either Sevilla's players or Pablo Machín. The first came in 2017, when after Cristiano Ronaldo won the inaugural 'The Best' award for his performances during the 2016 campaign, Zinedine Zidane's team fell to a narrow 2-1 defeat against the Andalusians. The following year, Machín guided his Girona side to an outstanding victory, after they fought back from a goal down to beat Player of the Year Ronaldo, and his Madrid teammates, 2-1.
And this year, after he broke the dominance of Messi and Ronaldo on the top individual award of the season; Luka Modric's crowning as FIFA's 'The Best' Footballer of the Year prompted an emphatic 3-0 loss away to Pablo Machín's Sevilla. The prospect of facing both post- prize executioners Sevilla and Pablo Machín in the same match, was clearly a challenge far too powerful for Madrid's players to surmount.
And so, this past Wednesday, on the turf of the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán, the three tips of the triangle that only seems to haunt the men from the Bernabéu, came together to bring them frustration once more. And of course, when combining three deadly factors together at the same time, at the same place, the result really could not have gone any other way...