![Cristiano Ronaldo Receives the Golden Boot Award](data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 594 396"></svg>)
Real Madrid's reign over the UEFA Champions League is finally over. The defending champions' 4-1 defeat to Ajax and the implications that come with it have made headlines all across the world in the last few hours.
The Galacticos were stunned by a young Ajax side who overturned their 2-1 home deficit to win on a 5-3 aggregate. This means that the Dutch outfit has progressed from a Champions League Round of 16 stage for the first time in 22 years.
Los Blancos are looking at a trophy-less season as they crashed out of the Copa del Rey last week and a second Clasico defeat to Barcelona the same week has left them with no hopes at challenging for the Spanish league title.
The dismal results mean even worse for Santiago Solari who has been under the scanner even before the Champions League game. A qualification to the quarter-final would have helped the Argentine salvage his season but it appears his side have hit the last nail on their coffin.
Of course, it got even more difficult for Solari to truly make an impact in the absence of an efficient goal-scorer since the club's all-time top-scorer Cristiano Ronaldo was sold to Serie A giants Juventus last summer.
Last year, the five-time Ballon d'Or winner revealed that it was his changed relationship with president Florentino Perez that led him to the departure.
In an interview with France Football, the Portuguese said, "He only ever looked at me as a business relationship. I know it. What he told me never came from the heart.”
“I felt it inside the club, especially from the president, that they no longer considered me the same way that they did in the start,” he said. "In the first four or five years there, I had the feeling of being ‘Cristiano Ronaldo’. Less afterwards. The president looked at me through eyes that didn’t want to say the same thing, as if I was no longer indispensable to them, if you know what I mean."
"That’s what made me think about leaving. Sometimes I’d look at the news, where they were saying I was asking to leave. There was a bit of that, but the truth is that I always had the impression that the president would not hold me back."
Many have slammed Perez for his decision but the sentiments once again came up after Real Madrid's humiliating loss at home last night. Fans took to Twitter to slam the club president:
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Published 06 Mar 2019, 14:28 IST