Holders Real Madrid Dumped Out of the Champions League

On Tuesday, Ajax Amsterdam FC knocked 13-time UEFA Champions League winners Real Madrid out of the competition. Los Blancos had a 2-1 away lead but lost 5-3 on aggregate. That evening, Real lost 4-1 at home— hitting a new low for the club as the first team to get knocked out of the Champions League round of 16 as title holders. Injuries and poor play have plagued the European giants all season, and they're now 12 points off the pace in La Liga, where they trail FC Barcelona.

Ajax Youth Triumph in Madrid

Betting stations never gave Ajax any chance, what with a squad made up mostly of kids, or what seemed to be, kids. They looked positively juvenile, somehow, beneath the bright lights of the Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid. But Ajax has always been an energized team, going back as far as you care to remember in their history, and their players were a lot faster than the players of Real Madrid, who might have had a bit more horsepower but certainly didn't have the pace.

The Loss of Ronaldo & Zidane

Real Madrid has not been able to find adequate replacements for their all-time leading scorer, Cristiano Ronaldo, or their former head coach, Zinedine Zidane, since their departures at the start of this season. The team replaced Zidane with summer hire Julen Lopetegui. But after only four and a half months in charge, Lopetegui was dismissed in late 2018. Santiago Solari took over from Lopetegui, but Solari's future with the club now seems just as uncertain as his predecessor's was. Real Madrid now sits at 5th place in La Liga, 12 points behind 1st place Barcelona.