In a replay of the European final from the previous season, Carlo Ancelotti’s team pulled off another incredible comeback at Santiago Bernabeu.
Real Madrid once again displayed Champions League magic on Tuesday, rallying their European campaign after falling behind 2-0 at halftime to defeat Borussia Dortmund 5-2. Even though Vinicius Jr. scored the second, fourth, and fifth goals for the Blancos that evening, Lucas Vazquez’s game-winning goal will go down as the highlight of an amazing evening.
After a back-and-forth first half, Dortmund took the lead. Donyell Malen received the ball from Serge Guirassy and slammed it past Thibaut Courtois, who was defenseless.
Four minutes later, Jamie Gittens scored the second goal by squeezing in at the back post after Malen’s cross. Madrid launched a quick offensive in response, but they did a respectable job of failing to score.
Jude Bellingham slammed a shot off the crossbar after missing a fantastic opportunity. Rodrygo struck the woodwork as well, but Gregor Kobel’s full-stretch save prevented an odd deflection.
After the break, Madrid, of course, woke up. After Nuri Sahin switched to a more conservative stance, the home team applied pressure, and the front line purred. Vinicius buried the equalizer less than two minutes after Toni Rudiger had opened the scoring with a header on Kylian Mbappe’s cross. After then, everything else seemed inevitable. After Vazquez scored a third goal, Vinicius scored two more spectacular goals to complete his hat-trick and win the Champions League again.