Ali Moreno

It felt like they were ready.

It felt like they had turned the corner.

It felt like Arbeloa had some sense of confidence with his team and that this team was responding to him.

But it was, as we said over the weekend, a house of cards.

Because there is, for this team right now, they don't know who they are.

There is no identity.

And so today they went in a back and forth with Benfica, which you don't want to do because that's exactly what Benfica won.

They won this open game.

There was no sense of control through the midfield.

There was no sense of control in terms of possession.

And when it came to creating opportunities, when you had to go chase a game, then they got completely disorganized.

And all the things that we have seen over the course of the last month and a half or so, they started to show back up.

Those things don't go away.

as a miracle.

They don't just disappear.

This team has issues.

They were going to show up again.

They showed up again today.

But the moment that they had Xaver Alonso walk out the door, they empowered the players.

Oh, big time.