Real Madrid facing Champions League exit as Bayern Munich edge Bernabeu classic

Real Madrid 1-2 Bayern Munich

Real Madrid are up against it in the bid for a 16th Champions League title, as Bayern Munich secured a first leg advantage at the Bernabeu.

Alvaro Arbeloa went with his expected line-up for the match, with teenager Thiago Pitarch preferred to Jude Bellingham and Eduardo Camavinga. However, he and his fellow midfielders found it very difficult in the opening stages against a fluid Bayern, although Real Madrid did have a couple of good chances – the best fell to Kylian Mbappe, who was denied.

It felt like a matter of time before Bayern scored, and it happened four minutes before half time. Vinicius Junior’s giveaway allowed the Bavarians to break, and Serge Gnabry slipped in Luis Diaz to slip the ball beyond Andriy Lunin. Trent Alexander-Arnold was caught cold by his former Liverpool teammate, who continued his fine form this season.

Real Madrid knew they needed a response in the second half in order to give themselves a good chance of staying in the tie, but rather, they had the worst possible start. Alvaro Carreras, who had a very difficult night, lost the ball, which allowed Michael Olise to play in Harry Kane to score 20 seconds after the interval.

The match became very stretched after that moment, as Real Madrid pushed hard to get themselves back into the contest. Vinicius Junior missed a huge chance after a Dayot Upamecano error, before Mbappe came very close twice – Manuel Neuer made a huge save down low for the first of those efforts, while the other went agonisingly wide of the far post.

Fortunately for Real Madrid, they scored the third goal of the night. Fine play on the right ended with Trent crossing for Mbappe, whose effort could not be stopped by Neuer on his occasion. That gave them plenty of momentum to find an equaliser, but the closest they came to finding it was a curled effort from Eder Militao that did not cause any issues.

Real Madrid up against it going into Bavaria showdown

Real Madrid will take confidence from their second half performance, but the fact of the matter is that they are staring down the barrel of a Champions League exit. They will need to be at their best next week to give themselves any chance of reaching the semi-finals.

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