Will the Spirit of Juanito help Real Madrid turnaround against Arsenal at Bernabéu?

Black and white portraits of a handsome man with sharp jawline, piercing eyes and thick black hair stare from the fluttering flags in Santiago Bernabéu, whenever Real Madrid needs to bounce back in a two-legged tie. The face on the flag is former winger and captain Juan Gomez, or fondly called Juanito. His numbers were humble—85 goals in 284 games; he barely enters the conversation of Real Madrid’s greats and galacticos; but for the club tragic, his name stirs a deeper emotion and identity. Juanito embodies Real Madrid’s indefatigability to stir rousing comebacks. The players and fans call it Espiritu Juanito; or the spirit of Juanito, even though his son had pleaded with the supporters to leave his father’s memories alone.
The myth, with obvious flourishes passed on time and the colourful life he lived off the field, goes that he scribbled his ten commandments required to overturn a 2-0 deficit against Celtic in the quarterfinal and read it out in the team bus en route to the stadium. Buoyed a typically spirited home crowd, they swept three goals, the third authored Juanito himself and completed the first of several comebacks that would become part of the Madrid folklore. Juanito became an instant cult-hero, his gospel was stuck on the walls of the dressing room, and the club became escape arts, out-wrestling star-studded Barcelona to claim five league titles in 10 years with sweat and labour, more than glitz and glamour as the club came to be associated with in gilded galacticos era.
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Fiercely loyal, Juanito would kill himself for the club. A former teammate once remarked his heart was twice as large as head. He wore the famous meringue-white shirt with so much pride that it sometimes drew the devil in him. He once shoved Lothar Matthaus to the ground after the German had hacked his colleague Chendo. A five-season ban was slapped on him, and he never wore the famous shirt again. Five years later, a car accident ended his life at 37.

But the characterics he instilled in his club lives on, and the fans punctually sing “Illa illa illa Juanito Maravilla” every seventh minute of a game. The legendary Iker Casillas wrapped his body with a Juanito face-flag after winning the league on the back of a series of jaw-dropping comebacks in the 2007 season. Raul used to reproduced his classical “jump to the corner flag” celebrations
It’s the Spirit of Juanito that will blow in Madrid, when they strive for a 3-0 reversal against Arsenal next Friday. Already, fans have posted his face and banners that read Remontada, Spanish for ‘comeback.” His most famous quote, delivered to Inter Milan players during their victorious 1984-85 UEFA Super Cup, too would be screeched out: “Ninety minutes at the Bernabeu are very long”.
The club’s hory is jewelled with miracles of epic scale. Recent vintage includes defeating PSO and Manchester City from behind en route winning the 2021-22 edition of the Champions League, dubbed the Champions League of Hes Spanish media. Liverpool next season and Manchester City this season too experienced the Bernabéu backlash. So much so that it is nearly a belief system. It feels, somehow, that they will find a way back. “We’re going to need something special and if there’s one place (we can do it), it’s our home,” midfielder Jude Bellingham would say after the 3-0 thrashing at Emirates. Story continues below this ad
The stands would heave with the winds of optimism, but it would be an arduous task to wipe off Arsenal’s three-goal advantage. Not that the wondrous strike-force of Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Junior, or the brilliant midfield duo of Bellingham and Luka Modric could conjure another magical night, or that Arsenal is a flawlessly wheeled machine, but there are too many glaring stains in Madrid’s suit.
Madrid’s weak defence
The most concerning is the porous defence. Only bottom-placed Real Valladolid had shipped in more goals in all competitions than Madrid (61 in 52). Their last clean sheet came in February end; leaking 16 goals in the next nine games. Both injuries and loss of form have contributed. Dani Carvajal, the closest to Juanito-like in doggedness, has been injured for much of the season. So had Eder Militao. Left-back Ferland Mendy had been another notable absentee, forcing Carlo Ancelotti to rush a back-from-injury David Alaba to the makeshift role. A semi-fit Alaba struggled to cope with the pace and trickery of Bukayo Saka. As did Federico Valverde, who Ancelotti said was not 100 percent fit. Central midfielder Dani Ceballos, another important player, too missed the Arsenal tie, though he could return next week. Now they have to cope with the absence of Eduardo Camavinga
Arsenal have their own deficiencies in scoring goals from open play without a special striker of centre forward or false nine. Real has the ammo upfront, but are misfiring. Vinicius Junior has netted only four goals this year; he and Mbappe have not synced in yet, resulting in discordant passing and miscommunication. The Brazilian could not muster a single shot on goal at the Emirates. Neither could his compatriot Rodrygo. Centre back Antonio Rudiger too has slowed down; his partner Raúl Asencio is error-prone too.
So rhyme-less that they resembled a hastily assembled orchestra troupe. “We weren’t good defensively or offensively. We struggled to keep hold of the ball,” Lucas Vázquez observed. “We’re lucky we only got away with three goals,” said Bellingham. The margin could have been bigger had Thibaut Coutois not produced a string of acrobatic saves, once repelling two successive rebounds from close range. Bellingham himself made a clearance on the line. Story continues below this ad
But as much as the injured personnel and loss in form, strategy and execution, they have missed the flicker of stoicism that has marked the finest of Madrid batches. They seemed less of a team and more of a collection of disenchanted individuals. Unless there is a sudden upturn in form in a week’s span, it’s unlikely that could see the light of semifinals.
But it’s Madrid; it’s Bernabéu and it’s the Spirit of Juanito that would be swirling in the stands that would remind his spiritual successors of how to pull off a tie from the brink. Arsenal would be battling not only a side nursing its battered pride, but the hory and aura of Europe’s most storied and successful club. Ninety minutes at the Bernabeu could be very long.