Xabi wasn't the problem

To paraphrase Rudyard Kipling: "If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs...you'll be a man, my son!"

This could have been the pep talk from José Mourinho to his Benfica goalkeeper, who scored the most dramatic of last-minute goals to keep his team in the Champions League and send Real Madrid swirling into a new crisis.

Anatoliy Trubin wrote his name into European football folklore with his heroic act. His team needed a single goal to make the knockout stages; likewise Real Madrid also needed one goal to equalise and secure a top-eight slot, therefore avoiding the lottery of the play-off round.

Trubin had the guts and personality that Real Madrid lacked. He deserves all the platitudes; Real's players deserve the denunciation

It just underlined the fact that deposed coach Xabi Alonso wasn't the problem. It's evident that this collection of players is feral; they collapsed as a team.

For the second time this season, they ended up with nine players. Raül Asencio shrugged his shoulders and simply stepped off the field when he received his second yellow card in the 92nd minute; he almost accepted it. Four minutes later, Rodrygo caught him up after abusing the referee.

Real Madrid's season was about to take a turn; they had sunk from third to ninth and the play-offs beckoned. Two minutes later, Benfica scored the goal they deserved.

Asencio and Rodrygo's only saving grace is the fact that they weren't the only two stupid ones. Aurélien Tchouaméni needed to be withdrawn. He was back in the team from a suspension, he was booked in the third minute and seemed to be on a mission; seconds after he was warned about grappling with Benfica's Nicolás Otamendi, he clutched his shirt within whistling distance of the referee to concede a penalty.

Álvaro Arbeloa replaced him with Eduardo Camavinga. His tackling was so erratic, another substitute, teenager Jorge Cestero, needed to be introduced to bring some maturity to the field. Camavinga shuffled into the left back position vacated by Alvaro Carreras who had also lost his head. Carreras, along with Fran García, was sent off in the December game with Celta that was about to signal the end for the coach.

So, what now? They can't sack the interim; Arbeloa has inherited the same issues as Alonso.

It underlines just what an amazing manager Carlo Ancelotti was. There was barely a public issue in the four-year second tenure of the Italian. Given what we are witnessing now, there would have been plenty of diva-like behaviour, but he ensured that they didn't display it on a match-day.

Florentino Perez needs to act. Arbeloa is clearly a mouthpiece for the president. He's like that White House spokesperson for President Trump. Don Florentino needs to get a grip; he needs to take Vinícius Júnior's demand for a €30m per season contract and extinguish it; he also needs to close the door on the changing room and rip into the massed egos.

The fans booed the players for the last home Liga match with Levante. The volume will be cranked up for the humiliating homecoming this week against Rayo Vallecano.

The other punishment is having to go through the uncertainty of the Champions League play-offs. It's either a rematch with Benfica or Bodø/Glimt, who play on a plastic pitch in the Arctic Circle. Both sound like a poetic reprimand.