When Roma Knocked Real Madrid Out at the Bernabéu in 2008

There are dates Roma fans still recite from memory. March 5, 2008 is one of them. That night at the Santiago Bernabéu, Luciano Spalletti's side pulled off something few visiting teams manage: they knocked Real Madrid out on their own turf and sent them packing back to Italy before the quarterfinals. With both clubs set to meet again in the Champions League, that bit of history is worth revisiting.

Before getting to that night in Spain, the story starts on February 19, 2008, at Rome's Stadio Olimpico. Madrid struck early through a Raúl goal in the eighth minute, the kind that makes you think the tie is already decided. But Roma didn't back down: David Pizarro equalized in the 24th minute, and Alessandro Mancini, finishing off a Francesco Totti assist, completed the comeback in the 58th. The 2-1 scoreline left everything open, though under the away goals rule of that era, Madrid only needed a 1-0 win in the second leg to advance.

The Night at the Bernabéu

Real Madrid, without the injured Ruud van Nistelrooy, came out determined to finish the job. Julio Baptista was a nightmare from free kicks, testing Doni in the first half and smashing a shot off the crossbar right after the restart. Roma, far from hiding, had their own chances too: Alberto Aquilani tried his luck from distance, and Mirko Vucinic, who had come on for Mancini, also struck the crossbar past Iker Casillas. The match swung back and forth, with neither side giving an inch.

The closing stretch changed everything. In the 71st minute, Pepe picked up a second yellow card and left Madrid down to ten men. Two minutes later, Rodrigo Taddei headed home a cross from Max Tonetto to put the visitors up 1-0. Raúl leveled things again in the 75th, sending the Bernabéu into a frenzy as the home side threw everyone forward. But deep into stoppage time came the final blow: Vucinic headed in a free kick delivered by Christian Panucci for the 2-1 that sealed a 4-2 aggregate win.

That Roma team, with Totti as captain and driving force, rose to the occasion to win both legs of the tie and reach the quarterfinals for a second straight season. For Bernd Schuster's Madrid, it was a fourth consecutive round of 16 elimination, a barrier the club simply couldn't get past in those years.

A History Madrid Dominates

The 2008 tie stands as an outlier in a head-to-head record that has otherwise favored Real Madrid. Between 2001 and 2018 the two sides met 12 times: eight wins for Madrid, three for Roma, and one draw. Two of those three Roma wins came, fittingly, in that 2008 round of 16. The third also came at the Bernabéu, on October 30, 2002, when a Totti goal sealed a 1-0 win in the group stage. Totti, in other words, was on the field for all three of his club's wins over the Spanish side.

Madrid got their revenge later on: in the 2015/16 round of 16 they won both legs 2-0, and repeated the feat in the 2018/19 group stage with another double win. Of the two knockout ties the clubs played, 2008 was the only one that ended with Roma on the winning side.