Technically, that Madrid squad didn't underachieve when you take into consideration certain things. Florentino Perez's incompetence was responsible for its failure. He sold the team's most important player Makelele claiming he was a mediocre player. The moment Makelele was gone, the results were catastrophic. Then he refused to listen to the managers' pleas to buy better defenders because "defenders didn't sell shirts" and instead, preferred to sack manager after manager for bad results. Also, he could have bought Ronaldinho but instead went for Beckham because "Ronaldinho was too ugly to market" LOL. If Real Madrid didn't have a brainless president at that time, that squad would have dominated Europe completely. Makelele was the best defensive midfielder of all time, Roberto Carlos the best left back of all time, Zidane, for many, the best player of all time, Ronaldo one of the best strikers of all time, then Raul, Figo and Beckham... Such a waste...