we faced one of the best attacking trios of the last 20 years in '15, started without chiellini, and had a very strong penalty appeal at 1-1. we were unlucky. pool had had a very soft penalty after 20 seconds, and basically catenaccio'd their way throughout the match. they were pretty lucky. that separated the two results, not the quality of the midfield players.
people tend to forget that there's no recipe for cl glory. sometimes the most expensive squad wins it, sometimes a superstar, sometimes some heroic defensive work, or just some pure luck at a penalty shootout. at cardiff, real defended much better than us, like pool defended better than spurs a couple of weeks ago. there's one single common element of the winners: they never give up. in that sense, the guy who lost a title in a hotel room raises some questions. let's hope he can change himself before trying to change us.