Real Madrid’s final Champions League group-stage match at Roma on 8 December 2004 was played behind closed doors, yet it produced an image that came to define an era: David Beckham, Luís Figo, Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane and Raúl together on the Olympic Stadium pitch after Figo’s penalty.
What the night decided
Roma lost the match, but their supporters had already been denied the chance to watch Madrid’s Galácticos at close range. UEFA had ordered the stadium closure after Swedish referee Anders Frisk was struck on the forehead by an object thrown from the crowd as he walked towards the dressing rooms at half-time during Roma’s home fixture against Dynamo Kyiv.
At 20:45 on that Wednesday evening, a venue with an official capacity of more than 70,000 seats was almost entirely silent. Mariano García Remón’s Real Madrid arrived for the final game of the group phase, while the usual noise and pressure of a Roman European night had been removed by the sanction.
Italian photojournalist Domenico Stinellis was among those allowed inside. From pitchside, he captured the moment Figo, Beckham, Ronaldo, Zidane and Raúl came together briefly as Madrid players returned towards the centre after Figo had scored from the spot. Roberto Carlos had also joined the initial celebrations but had moved away after congratulating Figo.
Stinellis initially regarded the picture as an imperfect frame. Positioned on the opposite side of the field, he felt he had missed the full force of Madrid’s reaction to the penalty. He sent the image because five outstanding players happened to be in the same shot, only later recognising how rare it was to see those five figures of that Madrid side alongside one another.
More than two decades later, the photograph hangs in the meeting room of the Madrid newsroom where it has become a reminder of a team packed with defining names of its generation.
A silent Olympic Stadium and a lasting image
For Stinellis, the absence of supporters changed the working conditions as much as the atmosphere. Photographers normally follow the changing volume of a crowd, the tension in the stands and the reactions around the pitch. In Rome, the scale of the empty stadium made the silence more striking.
The voices of players and coaches, as well as the sound of the ball, carried far more clearly than usual. From the touchline, the match offered access to details that are generally swallowed by tens of thousands of spectators.
He describes himself not as an artist but as a photojournalist, although he believes players of Figo’s quality make football especially compelling to photograph. The task is not simply to record a touch, but to anticipate the movement: body position, gaze and balance can reveal a player’s ability before the decisive action arrives.
In his view, the strongest image is often secured not by chasing the event after it unfolds, but by being ready a second before it happens.
Twenty days with the Galácticos in Asia
Stinellis had already spent extensive time around the Madrid squad before the closed-door encounter in Rome. Because of his Japanese-language skills and familiarity with Asian culture, he was assigned to cover the club’s pre-season summer tour the previous year.
He travelled with the team from Madrid through China, Japan, Hong Kong and Thailand before the party returned to Spain, spending more than 20 days around the players. The assignment created a more personal familiarity than the usual distance between photographer and subject, though it also brought occasional awkward moments.
One came at airport security before a flight from Kunming to Tokyo. Losing his balance under the weight of his backpack, Stinellis stepped backwards and landed on Roberto Carlos’s right foot. He recalled that the Brazilian was not pleased, while those nearby reacted as if something priceless had been damaged.
The journey home from Bangkok also stayed with him. During a long night flight to Madrid, the players’ excitement about returning to Spain could be heard from the upper deck of the jumbo jet, while journalists below tried to rest after an exhausting trip. Midway through the flight, a dancing procession moved through the cabin. Objections faded when the players began handing out champagne.
The return or the next round
Real Madrid are due to visit Roma at the Olympic Stadium again in the league phase of the 2026-27 Champions League, bringing a modern European meeting back to the ground that staged one of the most unusual nights of the club’s Galácticos period.
For Stinellis, the challenge of photographing elite football has changed as images are now taken constantly from every angle. The ideal subject is not necessarily the most famous player, but the one who offers an expression, gesture or situation capable of telling a fresh story.
He points to Zidane’s elegance of movement and Ronaldo’s power and explosive style as contrasting examples of how individual footballers can be recognised in a single frame. Yet the enduring value of the 2004 photograph rests on something impossible to arrange: five of Madrid’s biggest names sharing one spontaneous moment on an otherwise empty European night.
