The night of April 24, Camp Nou Stadium.
When Turkish referee Cakir blew the whistle to signal the end of the ninety-minute match, Camp Nou, packed with 95,845 fans, fell utterly silent. The entire stadium sank into a deathly hush.
The Barcelona players collapsed limply onto the pitch the moment the whistle sounded. Quite a few even covered their faces and sobbed uncontrollably. In stark contrast, every Real Madrid player was cheering and celebrating. Many rushed to the sidelines to celebrate with Ancelotti and Zidane in front of the visiting team's bench.
The scoreboard displayed the final result: 0–3. By international convention, the home team was listed first and the away team second.
After losing 0–5 away and 0–3 at home, Barcelona suffered an unprecedented and humiliating 0–8 aggregate defeat, exiting the Champions League in the most lamentable fashion.
That was why the stands at Camp Nou were deathly silent!
In truth, this had not been a hopeless match.
After the 0–5 away defeat, Guardiola had returned home and deployed a three-man defense, demonstrating his determination to win at all costs.
Puyol, Pique, and Alves formed the three-man back line. It was already an extremely attacking setup. Busquets sat deep in midfield, Iniesta and Xavi operated centrally, and Fabregas pushed forward to form a small diamond. This was the attacking formation Barcelona had used several times this season to tear opponents apart.
Sánchez, Messi, and Cuenca formed the Trident, with Cuenca being Barcelona's most eye-catching newcomer of the season.
It had to be said that Guardiola had fielded the strongest attacking lineup available to him. From the opening whistle, Barcelona displayed tremendous attacking intent and kept Real Madrid in a thoroughly miserable state throughout the first half.
Ancelotti once again deployed Double Defensive Midfielders, but this time the pairing