AEK Athens 2-3 Real Madrid: Match review | UEFA Champions League
Real Madrid winning a UEFA Champions League fixture with ease? No way. This time, it was the defending Greek Champions, AEK Athens, who were on the receiving end of yet another sensational Los Blancos comeback win.
At the end of matchday 4 in the Champions League, PSG and Real Madrid remain the only teams with a perfect record, sitting 1st and 2nd on the table, respectively.
Real Madrid are lucky to have Jude Bellingham at their disposal
There are midfielders, and then there is Jude Bellingham. With Arda Guler’s absence, it was the Englishman who dictated the play and controlled the tempo at which Real Madrid played.
His first goal was ruled marginally offside, but that did not faze the 23-year-old at all. In the 32nd minute, Cucurella whipped in a well-timed grounded cross, and Jude scored a cheeky backheel goal to equalise.
It was no surprise that after the victory, Bellingham was also named the man of the match and deservedly so.
Athens took the lead yet once more in the match, but this time, Kylian Mbappe scored from a Denzel Dumfries cross, which helped equal his best goal-scoring streak in the competition (6 matches with PSG), after the Frenchman.
Vinicius Junior, as expected, started the match on the left wing but left the fans and possibly even himself disappointed with his display. Lazaros Rota, the Athens right-back, did well to keep the Brazilian quiet, and he was eventually subbed off for Brahim Diaz.
For what has been a rarity this season, Madrid’s defensive performance was not up to the mark. Dumfries and Rudiger were beaten on a few occasions, while Eder Militao, in his first start under Mourinho, looked rusty.
But at the end of the day, Los Blancos secured the three points and AEK Athens, like AS Roma and other multiple sides in the past, were left to wonder what almost was, but what never came to be.
