“We will play and then we will see,” Carlo Ancelotti had said, so Real Madrid did their part and by the end of an ultimately easy night, life looked good again. The European champions started this match as the 22nd best team in the continent, somewhere towards the bottom of a table that keeps everyone guessing and supposedly on the edge of a catastrophe, and finished it six places higher and feeling as if they are among the favourites again. If, the coach was keen to stress, they can defend better.
Madrid had been defeated by Lille, Milan and Liverpool, but there was time still and a revival to come and now a 5-1 victory over Red Bull Salzburg in their penultimate game has lifted them back among the seeds for the playoff round. With one game to go, against Brest next week, and the team taking shape, it also leaves them a single point off the top eight. Two goals each from Rodrygo and Vinícius and another for Kylian Mbappé mean Ancelotti’s side still have a small chance of completing the first phase of this new format going straight through to the last 16, although seven teams still stand between them and that target.
