Alex Kirkland

They won, of course, the Super Cup.

And yeah, let's see what happens in this Copa del Rey second leg.

But that's the nature of being in all these competitions at this stage.

You can win them or, yeah, you could indeed go home empty-handed.

I wanted to ask you about Ronald Araujo, who scored the first goal since he came back.

He came to you and he hugged you.

I don't know how did you see this moment and what do you think about the goal and Araujo's comeback in a way?

Well, it also feels like we've had this conversation around Real Madrid for so long now, Dan, doesn't it?

Forget Xabi Alonso, go back to Carlo Ancelotti.

The talk around him was that the players weren't working hard enough.

He couldn't do it.

That's why Alonso came in.

It's three coaches now where you have still the same kind of conversation around are the players working hard enough, off the ball, dressing room unrest, and Arbeloa was supposed to be coming in to solve those problems.

And it's really notable, I think, listening to Arbeloa in every single press conference so far, he has gone out of his way

to really overtly praise these players.

And of course, managers do that, but really going above and beyond, I think, talking about Mbappé and Bellingham and Vinicius.

He clearly felt that that's the strategy to get these players back on site.

You asked about the reaction.

I mean, the reaction to this latest defeat against Benfica was kind of just, I think, a little bit of surprise because people here felt like they were on the way back.

The turnaround had started.