Man Utd Match Real Madrid’s Legendary Champions League Feat After Roma Comeback

Say what you will about Manchester United, but the club is Champions League royalty.

From being the first English team to compete—and win—in the original European Cup, to triumphing twice more in the Champions League era and lifting the iconic trophy more recently than AC Milan, Juventus and Ajax, the Red Devils are part of the fabric of the competition.

Recent struggles aside, which have seen the club qualify only inconsistently since Sir Alex Ferguson retired more than a decade ago, Manchester United remains Manchester United.

Tuesday night’s clash with Roma for a while looked as though it would mark a continuation of the alarming slump that has defined the early portion of 2026–27. The Serie A side, free scoring so far this season, raced into a 2–0 lead inside the first 20 minutes.

A lucky break from penalty encroachment initially helped turned the tide in the second half, but then the momentum shifted massively and Matheus Cunha inspired the late comeback to snatch a 3–2 victory instead. By the end, it was like the United of old once more.

Now, no club has ever won more Champions League matches after trailing by two or more goals at some point in the contest. This week marked the fourth such time in the post-1992 era that United have pulled off a comeback win of that nature. Only Real Madrid can match that.

Man Utd’s UCL Comeback Wins From Two (or More) Goals Down

The first example is probably the most famous—1999’s 3–2 comeback against Juventus in the semifinal second leg in Turin. Juve led by two inside the first 11 minutes, before Roy Keane’s iconic “captain’s goal” reduced the deficit in the 24th minute and Dwight Yorke had leveled the scoreline still in the first half. At that point, United had done enough to reach a first European Cup final in 31 years, but Andy Cole’s late third clinched victory in the match itself.

A group-stage comeback against Braga in October 2012 is less remembered. The Portuguese side, who had Ruben Amorim lining up in midfield that night, scored twice in the first 20 minutes through Brazilian winger Alan. Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernández pulled one goal back in the first half, but it wasn’t until later on that Jonny Evans and another from Chicharito turned the match in United’s favor. Comeback wins were Ferguson’s hallmark, but this was one of his last.

Prior to beating Roma this week, the other occasion saw Atalanta lead 2–0 at Old Trafford in October 2021 in one of Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s final matches as United manager. Marcus Rashford and Harry Maguire scored the goals that brought the Red Devils level at Old Trafford, with Cristiano Ronaldo, who’d scored a stoppage-time winner against Villarreal on the previous matchday, netted his fifth goal since sensationally rejoining the club that season.

Real Madrid’s UCL Comeback Wins From Two (or More) Goals Down

It was only this season Real Madrid completed their fourth Champions League comeback win from a position of trailing by two or more goals. Ironically, it was also against Roma, when Los Blancos visited the eternal city just last month. This was José Mourinho facing his former team, although it wasn’t until the second that they trailed by two goals, when Donyell Malen’s double made it 3–1 in Roma’s favor after earlier Marten de Roon and Kylian Mbappé strikes.

Real Madrid ultimately swept to victory in the final 10 minutes, when unlikely heroes Carlos Espí, Endrick and Antonio Rüdiger all found the net one after the next.

Roma are a recurring theme in these records, because Real Madrid’s first such comeback in this competition was also against—you guessed it—Roma, back in 2004. Raúl was still the main man for a Madrid side managed briefly in those days by Mariano García Remón, scoring twice after Roma had taken a 2–0 lead at the Bernabéu through Daniele de Rossi and future Los Blancos flop Antonio Cassano. Raúl’s second of the match proved decisive, after a Luís Figo penalty equalized, and Roberto Carlos sealed a 4–2 victory toward the end.

Real Madrid’s other two comeback wins in this category were both also within the past five seasons, scoring five goals without reply against Liverpool at Anfield in a round of 16 first leg in February 2023. They had canceled out Liverpool’s 2–0 lead before halftime.

It was a similar case of going 2–0 down and then scoring five in October 2024, when Borussia Dortmund took a commanding first-half lead at the Bernabéu—Donyell Malen on the scoresheet, again. All five Real Madrid goals were in the second half, with Vinícius Júnior taking the headlines with a hat trick that he completed in stoppage time.