Real Madrid face Copenhagen in the second matchday of the UEFA Champions League. History reveals that this will be the first official match between these two clubs. However, they did meet once on a football pitch on a friendly game.
It was on June 8th 1995, in a clash that didn’t take place either in Copenhagen or in Madrid. They played at La Rosaleda –Malaga’s stadium-, a place where Los Blancos had already played a friendly that year: a 2-0 victory over Celtic Glasgow on February 28th.
Los Merengues, managed at that time by Jorge Valdano, arrived as the new La Liga champions, having won the league with two games to spare. That fact meant Valdano opted to rest most of the usual starting eleven and instead give the reserves and youth players a chance.
Raul Gonzalez was among Castilla’s promising youngsters who took part in the match, after having made his first team debut that season. The starting line-up was the following: Canizares; Chendo, Marcos, Sanchis, Nando; Gomez, Redondo, Milla, Moran; Alvaro, Raul.
However, none of them was able to find the back of the Copenhagen net. Alfonso and Rivera, who came on after half-time, scored the two goals that gave Real Madrid a 2-0 victory over the recent Danish Cup winners.
As well as winning the only match ever played between the two, Real Madrid will also have the odds stacked in their favour against Copenhagen, as they have never lost to a Danish team in the Champions League.
I hope Mr Carlos understannds that his clock @ realmadrid has started ticking.