The history of these two teams is remembered for a controversial penalty by Marchena against Raúl in the 90th minute

Real Madrid-Valencia: the Ushiro-nage that knocked out Raúl

photo_camera REUTERS/WALEED ALI - Real Madrid's Luka Modric in action with Valencia's Francis Coquelin and Gabriel Paulista

A windy Sunday in February in Madrid. Carlos Queiroz's first season as Real Madrid coach. He took over from Vicente del Bosque and with the new, more modern image that Florentino Pérez was looking for in the Real Madrid of the 21st century. Sunshine and 15 degrees during the day, awaiting the big match at nine o'clock in the evening that would pit the leaders with 52 points, Real Madrid, against the second, Rafa Benítez's Valencia, who arrived at the Bernabéu with 50 points, four points ahead of Irureta's Deportivo de la Coruña.

The equality between the two teams was reflected in the standings with the same number of goals scored, 46; three games lost; five draws for Valencia's six and 16 wins for Real Madrid to 15 for Benítez's side. In goal there was some difference. Casillas had conceded 25 goals to date while Cañizares had scored 17.

Murcian referee Pedro Tristante Oliva was in his only season in the Primera Division. He was the only one who knew that this year would be his last in his job. Carlos Queiroz would be sacked as Real Madrid coach at the end of the season and Rafael Benítez would leave Valencia as league and UEFA Cup winner, but tired of the club's board of directors not valuing his work.

At nine o'clock in the evening, in the Bernabéu box sat Florentino Pérez with Jaime Ortí to his right and José María Aznar to his left. Behind him, Jorge Valdano in the back rows as the club's sporting director.

Queiroz faced a new match without the idea of making changes. The Portuguese coach was widely criticised for not moving the bench and pushing the players to exhaustion throughout the season. For that game he fielded Casillas, Salgado, Helguera, Roberto Carlos, Raúl Bravo, Solari, Figo, Guti, Beckham, Ronaldo and Raúl.

Benítez put on Cañizares, Garrido, Marchena, Ayala, Carboni, Vicente, Aimar, Baraja, Albelda, Angulo and Mista.

In the 29th minute of the second half, a corner kick taken by Aimar found its way to the head of Ayala, who out-jumped Helguera. Casillas touched the ball, but could do nothing about the force of the ball. The 0-1 scoreline put Valencia ahead in the competition and would have been a huge blow to Real Madrid's morale. Worse times were to come for Queiroz's side from March onwards.

The last minutes of that game were played in Valencia's half with Portillo as the only change. Real Madrid were hanging balls until Helguera's kick fell at Raúl's feet. The 7 knew how to get his back to Marchena to bring the ball down. The Valencia defender braced without much intention of fouling because they were already in the box and his team-mate Ayala was close to him. But Raúl fell to the ground.

For a few seconds there were doubts as to what had happened. Cañizares did not just clear the ball and Beckham was pressing for the ball to be put into play. Tristante Oliva looked to his assistant to make the final decision and he did: penalty in favour of Real Madrid. There were still no intercoms and conversations in the distance were based on glances and head gestures.

When he decided to point to the spot, the players in orange surrounded the referee in desperation. It was the 46th minute and the penalty was hotly disputed but replays would make it clear that there had been enough of a grab to warrant a penalty. Carboni, Rufete, Baraja, Vicente... all demanded explanations from Tristante Oliva while the referee defended himself with yellow cards.

Figo would be the one to take the penalty. Cañizares tried to distract him moments before and Beckham was smiling nervously behind. The Portuguese put the ball low to the left of the goalkeeper and the score was 1-1. The players of both teams were calling for time. Benítez because he didn't want any more trouble and Guti because he knew that anything could happen.

Once the game was over and in the press room, Benítez said that "to win at the Bernabéu you have to do twice as much to win half as much". What Marchena did was an Ushiro-nage, a judo key that consists of blocking, unbalancing and falling. The press of those years found an explanation for that penalty in a martial art and rivers of ink were written which, incidentally, served to dust off another discipline that is only talked about in the years of the Olympic Games.

That match was a mirage for Carlos Queiroz's Real Madrid. A coach who went down in history for squandering an eight-point lead over Valencia at the end of that February to finish the season fourth in the standings, seven points behind Valencia and with Deportivo and Barcelona ahead of them. The defeat at Montjuic in the Copa del Rey final against Zaragoza was the trigger for that squad. Nine defeats in 13 games saw them crash out of the Champions League with Morientes' Monaco and lose the last five league games in a row.

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