It was brutal, it was humiliating. It was the heaviest defeat of Jose Mourinho's career. Into the bargain, was also inflicted by Real Madrid's bitter rivals, Barcelona.
Mourinho was doing his best to look brave after what the Spanish sports daily Marca, usually a cheerleader for Real, was calling on Tuesday: "A slap in the face for Madrid."
To his credit, when he could have so easily have put on one of his familiar pouts and just flounced away, leaving one of his subordinates to handle the brickbats.
"I've always said that Barcelona were the finished product and the work of many years," he said. "I've also said that Real Madrid, despite having played very well until today, are not a finished product and a lot is missing from the team to be so."
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Back in August, Spain's leading sports daily newspaper Marca's traditional pre-season La Liga guide had as the headline for its main editorial, "Hola don Pepito, Hola don Jose."
Even though those words were written more than three months ago, there is no doubt that Monday's El Clasico at the Camp Nou - when Pep Guardiola's Barcelona take on Jose Mourinho's Real Madrid - is the game that the media and almost every other Spanish football fan - even those whose affections lie with the other 18 top-flight clubs - have been waiting for since the start of the campaign.
Given that the respective budgets of champions Barcelona and league leaders Real Madrid continue to dwarf those of their Spanish rivals and the fact that both clubs again indulged in summer spending sprees to bring in new blood, it is no surprise the game is a top-of-the-table clash.
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Ajax and Real Madrid are two of the legendary names of European club football. But when they meet at the Amsterdam Arena on Tuesday, that is the only thing they will have in common.
The Spaniards, you sense, are starting to believe they can become the kings of Europe again for a record 10th time. They are on top of La Liga and oozing confidence after a , the latest in a string of emphatic victories.
Nearly 2000 kilometres away, according to my Road Atlas of Europe, Ajax were participants in a less-than-enthralling , which left them still six points adrift in third place.
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The top flight of Spanish football may now be devoid of any British influence after the return of after his unhappy season at Zaragoza, but further down the divisions in Spain the Union Jack and St George's Cross are flying high.
, not a name many football fans will be familiar with even if they have a penchant for sherry, are currently in contention for the promotion play-offs from their group in the Spanish fourth division with a team consisting mainly of English players.
Goalkeeper Daniel Harford is Welsh, midfielder Lee Lynch - a former West Brom reserve - hails from Limerick, while defender Sean McCashin is a Northern Ireland Under-19 international. There are also a couple of Spaniards as well as a Portuguese midfielder - Adriano Moke, who was once on Nottingham Forest's books - but 19 of the current 25-man squad are English.
This is clearly no ex-pat pub team but a serious professional outfit with the majority of players aged 20 or under, all hoping to develop their game further and attract the interest of a bigger club in England, Spain or anywhere else for that matter.
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First there was 1789, then 1968 and now 2010. France is in ferment and not just on the streets in protest at , with French football also in revolt.
I think it's fair to say that almost no one, perhaps even their most ardent supporters, would ever have thought they would live to see the day when Brest - Stade Brestois 29 to give them their proper name - would top the .
Brest had a sustained spell in the top flight during the 1980s - during which Real Madrid striker Gonzalo Higuain's father Jorge played for the Breton club - but by the end of the 1990s they had slithered down as far as France's fourth tier before crawling their way back up though the divisions.
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It's taken a long time but, at 65, the - almost universally known as Edy - has finally reached the summit of Italian football.
During his varied coaching career of almost 30 years, which has seen him take charge at 21 different clubs, he's tasted modest success in the lower divisions but few would seriously have expected him to have guided a team to the top of Serie A, especially the perennial under-achievers of Italian football.
Brescia and Vicenza both won Serie B under his guidance while he took Napoli from Serie C to Europe during .
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Hi, I'm Phil Minshull. I've lived in Spain since 1997 and covered Spanish football since the first day I got here. My blog aims to provide some insight into what's happening in La Liga, and there is much more to it than only Real and Barcelona, as well as elsewhere around Europe.
