There is always something special about Los Blancos in the Champions League. Real Madrid somehow outlasted RB Leipzig in a tough, close-fought 2-0 match in the Champions League.
RB Leipzig held on for so long in this match against the might of Real Madrid, though not the full might with Karim Benzema injured, that I feel them losing out on a point is very harsh. Yet, to be fair, both teams played well enough to win the game, so I guess I shouldn’t feel too bad.
Anyway, prior to the game, everyone knew that this game was going to be defined by two things: RB Leipzig’s blistering-fast counterattack against the steady, calm, and ruthless Real Madrid possession-based attack. And so it happened that way, though not in the manner everyone in the media/punditry world might have guessed.
In that first half, it was RB Leipzig that had all of the best chances as the Christopher Nkunku miss on the 27′ mark and Nkunku’s near tap-in on the 33′ mark ended up being the factor that led to Leipzig’s defeat. Those two chances, especially the second one, would have placed an enormous amount of pressure on the defending Champions League winners as Real Madrid really didn’t create anything until the 70′ mark and beyond.
Christopher Nkunku has developed into one of the best strikers in Europe during his time in Leipzig, so I’m sure he’s devastated that he couldn’t get his foot onto one of those chances. Still, that’s the luck of the draw sometimes as Real Madrid would punish the German side in the 79′ mark for their missed opportunities.
In the only great movement in this entire game (it really was a scrappy, defensive showcase), Vinicius beat RB Leipzig’s fullback, Benjamin Heinrichs, down the left wing, then chopped the ball inside of the fullback and dished a pass across the box to a wide open Fede Valverde.
Valverde faked a shot, cut the ball onto his left foot, and beautifully curled the ball into the bottom corner to put Real up 1-0 after 80 minutes of continually battering down at Leipzig’s defense
Judging by how excited and fired-up Valverde was by the goal (it was really great and kind of funny to see), I would be shocked if didn’t end up as captain of Real one day. He has so much passion and joy while playing for Madrid and in front of the Madrid faithful that it would be a travesty if Florentino Perez and whomever the next Madrid coach is didn’t give Valverde the captain’s armband.
Plus, he’s more than capable of playing in the Madrid starting 11 on a weekly basis. He’s the definition of captain material.
Nevertheless, Leipzig were so spent by this point that once Valverde’s goal went in, their spirts and hopes of salvaging a draw in the Spanish capital were lost. Marco Asensio added another right on the stroke of stoppage time as he masterfully curled a cross-pass (or whatever you’d call Toni Kroos’ pass on that play) into the far corner from outside of the box.
It really was a fantastic goal from a player that is rumored to be on his way out of the door.
This game will really hurt Leipzig going forward as not only did they have the chance of earning a point against Real Madrid, but this loss has now also put them at the bottom of Group F. With Shakhtar Donetsk beating the German side in the last matchday and picking up a point against Celtic today, they now have 4 points to Leipzig’s 0.
It’s going to be a real challenge to reach the Round of 16 now as they need to start winning games against really tough opponents, rather than just picking up a few draws here and there.
As for Real Madrid, this is just another win on their road to repeat as champions. They now sit onto of the group with 6 points and realistically only need another 3 to advance into the Round of 16. We’ll see if they can get that result in their next matchup against Shakhtar Donetsk.
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