Real Madrid secured their place in the knockout round of the Champions League with an emphatic 5-1 win over RB Salzburg at the Santiago Bernabeu.
The 15-time winners and current holders had surprisingly lost three of their opening six games to sit surprisingly close to the dreaded bottom eight of the league stage.
But a determined and energized Madrid came out of the dressing room to deliver a statement performance, showing all the grit and class you'd expect to see from a side featuring the likes of Kylian Mbappe, Jude Bellingham and Vinicius Junior.
It was another Brazilian, Rodrygo, who got the party started for Madrid, opening the scoring after 23 minutes with a measured finish into the far corner. This particular goal was consistent, but what followed from the tricky winger was absolutely spectacular. Cutting in from the left, he raced onto Bellingham's back heel to curl a superb shot past the outstretched glove of Janis Blaswich.
Mbappe scored one of the easiest goals he will ever score Madrid career just after the break, robbing Blaswich of the ball before firing into the empty net, before Vinicius stepped in with the first of his two goals.
Running away with Luka Modric's ball past the full-back, O's ballThe underdog showed extremely quick feet to open the corner, cutting inside an eyelash for an unstoppable effort into the far corner.
His second was the result of a lightning-quick counter that saw right-back Federico Valverde waltz into the middle of the park before laying the ball on a plate for the 24-year-old. A body part later and Vinicius had slipped on goal, sliding easily past Blaswich.
The only sour note for Madrid was Thibaut Courtois conceding his clean sheet to Mads Bidstrup five minutes later, but they moved up to 16th in the table. Champions League table and sit just one point behind the top eight.
|
The players |
evaluations |
|---|---|
|
GK: Thibaut Courtois |
7.5/10 |
|
RB: Federico Valverde |
8.2/10 |
|
CB: Raul Asencio |
7.3/10 |
|
CB: Antonio Rudiger |
7.8/10 |
|
LB: Ferland Mendy |
7.3/10 |
|
CM: Dani Ceballos |
7.4/10 |
|
CM: Luka Modric |
8.6/10 |
|
RM: Rodrygo |
8.8/10 |
|
AM: Jude Bellingham |
8.7/10 |
|
LM: Vinicius Junior |
9.0/10 |
|
ST: Kylian Mbappe |
7.9/10 |
|
UNDER: David Alaba (64' for Bellingham) |
6.2/10 |
|
UNDER: Arda Guler (64' for Ceballos) |
7.0/10 |
|
UNDER: Endrick (71' for Rodrygo) |
6.3/10 |
|
UNDER: Brahim Diaz (71' for Mbappe) |
6.3/10 |
|
UNDER: Jacobo Ramon (78' for Rüdiger) |
6.3/10 |
Unused entities: Andriy Lunin (GK), Fran Gonzalez (GK), Fran Garcia, Jesus Vallejo, Aurelien Tchouameni, Chema Andres,