Real Madrid set for rare trophyless season - will Arbeloa pay the price?

Real Madrid set for rare trophyless season - will Arbeloa pay the price?To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.This video can not be playedMedia caption, Bayern score late to win seven-goal thriller over Real MadridByAlex BrothertonBBC Sport journalistPublished4 minutes agoCommentsAs the initial feelings of anger and devastation at their Champions League quarter-final defeat to Bayern Munich subside, reality will begin to set in for Real Madrid's players.Their chances of winning silverware this season were already slim, but a late moment of indiscipline from Eduardo Camavinga in Munich, followed by two even later Bayern goals, leave Los Blancos needing a miracle.Unless they can overhaul Barcelona's nine-point lead at the top of La Liga with seven matches remaining, Real will end a season trophyless for just the fifth time this century.Alvaro Arbeloa's side came so close to reaching the semi-finals, but history does not look kindly on Real Madrid managers who fail to win major trophies.Bellingham's 'disaster' coming trueHaving won the Champions League (15) and La Liga (36) more than any other team in history, Real Madrid are not used to failure.Los Blancos have only gone without a major trophy in four seasons this century - 2004-05, 2005-06, 2009-10, and 2020-21.In campaigns when they didn't win the league, Champions League or a domestic cup - like in 2024-25 - they at least still won either or both the Uefa Super Cup or Fifa Club World Cup.And this season has certainly been an inconsistent one.Real started the campaign with Xabi Alonso as manager. And while a 2-1 defeat of Barcelona gave them a five-point lead at the top of the league table after just 10 games, a run of four matches without a win soon followed.Alonso then resigned as manager after losing to Barca in the Spanish Super Cup in January, before the tenure of his replacement, former team-mate Arbeloa, began with a Copa del Rey defeat to second-d...