Real Madrid 5 Borussia Dortmund 2: Vinicius Jr inspires yet another Champions League comeback

Real Madrid produced an incredible second-half comeback to thump Borussia Dortmund at the Bernabeu.

The Bundesliga side had been leading 2-0 after an hour, only for the European champions to blow them away with five goals, three of which came from Vinicius Jr.

The Athletic’s Liam Tharme, Dermot Corrigan and Seb Stafford-Bloor assess the key talking points…

A different game, the same script

Madrid, behind at the Bernabeu on a Champions League night and coming back to win. In Carlo Ancelotti’s second reign, since he rejoined at the start of 2021-22, Madrid have gone behind 18 times in the Champions League.

They’ve won eight times, more than they’ve lost (seven), and drawn three. Unsurprisingly, it makes them the best comeback team in Europe’s top competition in that time. Of the eight times they’ve fallen behind at home, they’ve now won five.

There have been bad losses in that time, too — at home to Sheriff, dispatched away to Manchester City in the 2023-24 knockouts, and most recently a 1-0 defeat away to 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 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 in last season’s 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, 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 Guirassy, who set up Malen for the finish.

Just three minutes later, Vazquez was nowhere to be seen as Gittens was 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 unmarked to score from close range.

When Madrid were on the attack through most of the second half, Vazquez showed his value and character when 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 finished off Madrid’s comeback by cutting in from the right wing and firing home their third goal.

Vazquez is not a bad player, he is just not a reliable right-back and Madrid’s hierarchy have not sufficiently strengthened in defence through recent windows and decided not to sign anyone to replace utility defender Nacho Fernandez when he left last summer.

It all means there will be more talk about Madrid’s possible move for Liverpool’s Trent Alexander Arnold, whose contract situation means he could join for free next summer. Speeding that up to January looks impossible, but Los Blancos really do have a big problem at right-back.

Dermot Corrigan

Did Sahin’s subs cost Dortmund?

The difference between an excellent night for Nuri 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 often in the Bundesliga, 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 seemed spooked by where he was and the illusory danger of a Real Madrid comeback that, until he replaced Gittens with Anton, packing his defence and removing one of his outlets, had never looked likely.

Pressure from Real 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 the equaliser by replacing Malen with Pascal Gross — 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 a powerful opponent, 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