Real Problems Facing Pellegrini

By JONATHAN CLEGG

Life isn't easy for the coach of Real Madrid.

As manager of Europe's most illustrious football club, winning isn't considered a bonus but a birthright and success is measured not by how many matches you win, but how handily you crush your opponent.

But even by the exacting standards encountered at the Santiago Bernabéu, Manuel Pellegrini finds himself in an unusual situation.

No need

Real Madrid coach Manuel Pellegrini addresses a news conference after his team's training session Tuesday.

Just nine months since taking his place in the Madrid dugout, the Chilean coach has his team firing on all cylinders: top of La Liga, unbeaten at home and fresh off a thrilling come-from-behind victory over Sevilla on Saturday that added another chapter to the club's history of famous fightbacks—known as remontadas.

Come tonight, however, he could be clinging to his job.

That's because tonight Madrid faces a pivotal European match against Lyon in the UEFA Champions League, the world's premier club competition. And if there's one thing Madrid demands above all else, it's success on the biggest stage.

"On Wednesday night at the Bernabeu, it's do or die," says defender Álvaro Abeloa.

The European Cup is part of Real Madrid's identity. After all, the club has won it a record nine times and was the tournament's first ever champion in 1956, when the iconic Alfredo di Stéfano inspired a 4-3 triumph over Stade Reims in Paris.

Since then a pantheon of greats has ensured the competition remains part of Madrid legend, a history of success that defines the club in relation to its eternal rival Barcelona, winner on just three occasions.

But recent success has been hard to come by. Madrid's last triumph was in 2002 and it has failed to advance past the last 16 in each of the past five years. Making matters worse, Barcelona has won it twice since, including last year in Rome.

Imagine the New York Yankees or Los Angeles Lakers failing to make a single playoff appearance in half a decade, while the Boston Celtics or Red Sox claimed a couple of titles, and you get some sense of the anguish inflicted on the Spanish capital by this barren run.

With Madrid's own Bernabéu stadium due to host the Champions League final for the first time in 30 years this May, Phil Ball, the author of "White Storm: The Story of Real Madrid," says the club—and in particular Mr. Pellegrini—simply cannot fail in Europe again.

"I would say defeat at this stage is almost unthinkable," Mr. Ball says. "I really don't see how the team, the pro-Madrid press, the whole Madrid machine could come back from it.

"Maybe [Director General] Jorge Valdano would go, because he's very much the man behind the throne. But certainly they would call for Pellegrini's head, which is terribly unfair given their league form."

Indeed, since his arrival from Villareal last summer, Mr. Pellegrini has overseen what may turn out to be one of the most successful seasons in Madrid's 106-year history.

Top of the league with 67 goals scored and a return of 62 points from 25 matches, Madrid is on course for a final tally of 94 points and 102 goals—its best campaign since 1960-61. And at home, Mr. Pelligrini's team has been simply frightening: 13 straight victories and an aggregate scoreline of 44-10.

No wonder Sevilla coach Manolo Jiménez conceded that his side's defeat on Saturday had come at the hands of "the best Madrid I've ever seen. They are electric." Yet none of that will count for much if Madrid loses tonight—and not just because their reputation as the European Cup's leading light is on the line.

There's also the small matter of last summer's unprecedented spending spree in which Florentino Pérez, the club president, invested more than a quarter of a billion euros in a drastic overhaul of the team that was highlighted by the capture of the world's top player, Cristiano Ronaldo, for a record £80 million ($131 million).

In addition, Mr. Abeloa, Raúl Albiol, Xabi Alonso, Kaká and Karim Benzema were recruited by Mr. Pérez in a star-struck recruitment policy. The purpose of extravagant summer outlay was simple: To end Barcelona's supermacy and put Madrid back where it had been a decade ago—on top of the world.

None of the players is under any illusion about how crucial tonight's game is. For Mr. Pérez, a boyhood Madrid fan who grew up watching the great Real sides of the 1950s and 60s win five European Cups in succession, the pressure to win the sport's biggest prize is such that he has reportedly offered his stars an extra €250,000 each if they overturn a 1-0 first-leg deficit tonight.

"With all the signings Madrid has made this year, it would be a disaster if we were knocked out," says midfielder and club stalwart Guti.

European elimination would also deal a blow to Mr. Perez's "galacticos" strategy—the policy of systematically signing the sport's biggest names in an attempt to increase the club's commercial appeal and become the biggest brand in football.

Although global marketing and a ground-breaking domestic TV deal have catapaulted Madrid to the top of the Deloitte Football Money League for five successive years, it risks falling behind clubs such as Barcelona and Manchester United if it can't compete on the field.

"If Real Madrid doesn't get back to the summit of European soccer, it will be a disaster in both sporting and economic terms," says Carlos Martí, a research associate at the Madrid-based Centre for Sports Business Management.

For Messrs. Pelligrini and Pérez, that $350 million gamble on the most expensive team in the history of world football all comes down to tonight.

Write to Jonathan Clegg at jonathan.clegg@wsj.com