Real Madrid produced an incredible second-half comeback to thump Borussia Dortmund at the Bernabeu in a rematch of last season’s Champions League final. The Bundesliga side were leading 2-0 after an hour, only for Madrid to blow them away with five goals, three of which came from Vinicius Junior.
The Athletic’s Liam Tharme, Dermot Corrigan and Seb Stafford-Bloor assess the key talking points…
Different game, same script…
Stop me if you’ve heard this one: Madrid, trailing at the Bernabeu on a Champions League night, coming back to win.
In Carlo Ancelotti’s second reign as their manager, since he rejoined at the start of the 2021-22 season, Madrid have fallen behind 18 times in Europe. They’ve gone on from there to win eight times, more than they’ve lost (seven), and drawn three. Unsurprisingly, it makes them the best comeback team in the competition in that time. Of the eight times they’ve fallen behind at home, they’ve now won five of those games.
There have been bad losses in that time, too — at home to Sheriff Tiraspol of the Moldovan league, dispatched away to Manchester City in the 2023-24 knockouts, and most recently a 1-0 defeat in Lille — and even by Madrid’s standards, this remontada was ridiculous.
It was the first time in four years — almost exactly to the day — that they were two goals down at half-time at home in the Champions League (vs Shakhtar Donetsk) and this is their first European home win from a two-goal deficit for 20 years (vs Roma in 2004).
By the end of it, Dortmund looked tired and were stretched despite manager Nuri Sahin moving to a back five, which gave an abundance of time and space for Vinicius Jr to break into as he ended up with a hat-trick. Ancelotti will just have to hope that Madrid haven’t used their comebacks up too early.
Liam Tharme
…but Madrid’s right-back issues laid bare again
When these teams met at Wembley in June in the Champions League final, Madrid’s right-back Dani Carvajal was man of the match after an inspirational defensive display and a goal.
There was a lot of blame to go around for Madrid’s first-half performance here, but the focus was mainly on right-back Lucas Vazquez, now the starter in that position as Carvajal is out for the rest of the season with a knee injury.
For Dortmund’s first goal, Vazquez was not strong enough in a 50-50 with Julian Brandt on the edge of the Madrid box and the ball reached Serhou Guirassy, who set up Donyell Malen for the finish. Just three minutes later, Vazquez was nowhere to be seen as Jamie Gittens was left unmarked in the six-yard box to smash home.
The 33-year-old long-serving squad player is not a natural defender, as was shown last weekend in La Liga when he was too slow to cover as Celta Vigo centre-forward Williot Swedberg was also unmarked to score from close range.
When Madrid were on the attack through most of the second half though, Vazquez showed his value and character while going the other way. He had a shot from a narrow angle on target early in the half when the pressure was starting to crank up. Then, with 83 minutes gone, he completed the comeback by cutting in from the right wing and firing home Madrid’s go-ahead goal.
Vazquez is not a bad player at all, but he just isn’t a reliable right-back, and Madrid’s hierarchy have not sufficiently strengthened in defence through recent windows, deciding not to sign anyone to replace utility defender Nacho Fernandez when he left last summer.
It all means there will be more talk about a possible move for Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold, whose contract situation means he could join them as a free agent next summer. Speeding that up to January looks impossible, but Madrid really do have a big problem at right-back.
Dermot Corrigan
Vazquez was nowhere to be seen as Gittens, above, made it 2-0 to Dortmund (Denis Doyle/Getty Images)
Did Sahin’s subs cost Dortmund?
The difference between an excellent night for Sahin and crushing disappointment really lay in his substitutions.
Dortmund were superior in the first half, playing with the kind of balance they have searched for all season. Most of the time in the 2024-25 Bundesliga so far, they have been frantic and fragile and terribly vulnerable whenever they have lost the ball. Here, they were composed and precise in the way they played out of their own defensive zone and ruthless in taking their chances.
And then…
Sahin, a 36-year-old former Dortmund player who assisted Edin Terzic for the second half of last season before being promoted into the top job, seemed spooked by where he was and the illusory danger of a Madrid comeback which, until he replaced Gittens with Waldemar Anton 10 minutes into the second half, packing his defence and removing one of his outlets, had never looked likely.
Pressure from the home side was always going to arrive at some point, but Sahin surrendered territory and momentum with that first change long before he needed to. When he responded to Vinicius Jr’s 62nd-minute equaliser by replacing Malen with Pascal Gross — giving up counter-attacking speed for a much more static player — Dortmund’s hope of finding a way back in front seemed to disappear, making the final outcome feel inevitable.
Any dispassionate analysis would credit Sahin for much of what happened this evening — and rightly — but he was also the architect of his own demise. Yes, it’s easy to have trepidation against such powerful opposition, but part of being successful is resisting the impulses that come with that and not being prematurely conservative.
In the end, that will be the lesson Sahin has to take from this.
Seb Stafford-Bloor
What next for Real Madrid?
Saturday, October 26: Barcelona (H), La Liga, 8pm UK, 3pm ET
What next for Borussia Dortmund?
Saturday, October 26: Augsburg (A), Bundesliga, 2:30pm UK, 9:30am ET
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(Top photo: Denis Doyle/Getty Images)
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