Soccer/Euroscene: Ronaldo sat on the concrete floor of the TV interview room, a bottle of water in his hand and his gaze semi-focused on the little portable TV one of the technicians had put in place for the duration of the match.

"The Phenomenon" had just been sent off in the second half of extra-time during Real Madrid's Champions League elimination by Juventus last Wednesday night at the Stadio Delle Alpi in Turin.

As he sat there looking forlorn in the Real Madrid away strip of blue, his socks rolled down, and completely ignored by the technicians who were busy preparing for the hectic scramble of post-match interviews, it was hard not to feel that, in some way, he embodied the current Real Madrid state of decline and fall.

Just before the final whistle, Ronaldo slowly climbed to his feet and wearily made his way to the Real Madrid dressing-room just down the corridor.

Half an hour later, he was back with us in the interview room, dressed in the elegant light grey, regulation Real Madrid travelling suit. He might have been a young tycoon, heading to the office for another day of mastery of the financial universe.

In a series of interviews, he made all the right noises: "We should have dared a bit more from the start. We knew that if we scored a goal, then we were practically qualified. We did have our chances but, partly due to misfortune, we didn't take them", he said.

His voice, his smile and his relaxed body language told a different story from the player who had sat on the floor, slumped against the wall just half an hour earlier. He was trying to save the unsaveable, to suggest there was still life in this old Real Madrid dog. Earlier, with no cameras turned on him, he had looked like a man just 10 minutes away from the gallows.

For Ronaldo, for several of his illustrious team mates and for Real Madrid itself, last Wednesday night may well turn out to have been a watershed in the club's history. Overpowered by an awesomely combative Juventus, Real were left to ruminate on how a side of considerably less potential (at least on paper) were able to outplay them.

For, make no mistake, the "galacticos" might have had their chances (few, in reality) but they were always on the back foot in a tense, dramatic encounter in which Juventus took the game to them for much of the match. For the side whose very raison d'etre is to play attacking, quality football, their cautious attitude was both extremely disappointing and out of character.

It is true that in games like this, the final result can often hinge on one or two key moments. Minutes from full time, Roberto Carlos struck a majestic, viciously swirling and powerful free-kick worthy of his best efforts. It was one of those shots that might well have won the game (at that stage, the score was 1-0 for Juve on the night, 1-1 on aggregate).

In the end, Juventus goalkeeper Gigi Buffon got his defensive wall right and was in the right position to make the save of the night. That shot might have gone in, Real might have qualified but they would not have convinced.

No one who was at the Stadio Delle Alpi can have doubts about the limitations of the current "galacticos". Perhaps some of their greatest talents, men like Figo and Zidane, are coming to the end of a glorious road. Perhaps others, such as Ronaldo, have difficulty concentrating on their football. Perhaps others again, such as England's David Beckham, were never quite real "galacticos" in the first place.

It could also be that the increased training and discipline imposed by new Brazilian coach Vanderlei Luxemburgo has not gone down well with the occupants of the most exclusive dressingroom in world football. Whatever the explanation, Real did not want to run, to chase, to work as hard or, above all, to win nearly as much as Juventus last week. The right side went through.

Lest anyone had missed the point about the Real crisis, the men in white served a timely reminder just four days later last Sunday when they travelled to their own Madrid hinterland to get beaten 2-1 by little Getafe. Out of the Champions League and 11 points adrift of Barcelona in the Liga, this Real side may have come to the end of a cycle. Watch out for big changes this summer in Madrid.