Marc Cucurella jogged onto the pitch in the 70th minute, a routine substitution for Álvaro Carreras in a game Real Madrid had long since locked up. What followed was anything but routine.
Jeers rose from across the stands, not from a single block but from everywhere at once. For a few confused moments it looked as if Real Madrid’s own supporters were turning on a player they had signed from Chelsea in the summer. They were not. The whistles belonged to Leipzig.
Bernabéu security had planned for a standard away contingent, around 2,000 German supporters in the upper northern stand. Hundreds more had bought tickets through the unofficial market and other secondary channels and spread quietly into home sections across the ground. Scattered that way, their jeers seemed to arrive from every corner.
The Euro 2024 moment Germany will not let go
The grievance is two years old. In the Euro 2024 quarter-final in Stuttgart on 5 July, Jamal Musiala struck a shot in extra time that hit Cucurella’s hand inside the box. English referee Anthony Taylor waved play on, VAR did not intervene, and Spain went through on their way to winning the tournament.
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Germany went home convinced they had been robbed. UEFA’s own refereeing panel, reviewing the tournament that September, concluded a penalty should have been given, judging that Cucurella’s arm was not close to his body and had made him unnaturally bigger.
Madrid’s crowd worked it out, and clapped back
Once Real Madrid supporters realised the booing was not coming from their own ranks, they switched the mood. Every subsequent touch of Cucurella’s drew applause from the home end, a deliberate counter to hostility that had followed Spain’s left-back around the pitch.
The scoreline was long settled by then. Bernardo Silva had put Madrid ahead on 43 minutes, Arda Güler added a second after the break, and late goals from Kylian Mbappé and Yan Diomande wrapped up a 4-1 win on Matchday 3 of the Champions League league phase. Tidiam Gomis grabbed a consolation for Leipzig.
Real Madrid remain unbeaten in the competition after three group matches.
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