Real Madrid is the king of European football with 15 Champions League titles. And they have also often made historic comebacks, with the latest victim being Dortmund.
Los Blancos are a strange team at the moment. They have a squad of excellent stars but have not been able to find a common voice. At the Bernabeu, there were times when Real fans did not understand what was happening to their team.
In the first half, the "White Vultures" played extremely badly. They defended weakly, lacked cohesion in midfield and were hesitant in attack. However, Los Blancos showed a completely different image in the second half with the explosive Vinicius.
The Brazilian scored a hat-trick in what was considered the best performance of his career so far. There is no doubt that Vinicius will be the winner of this year's Ballon d'Or.
In the old Champions League format, Real Madrid never failed to get through the group stage. However, they face that risk when starting the new format. The 1-0 defeat to Lille in the second match can be considered unusual as Real created 9 chances with an xG (expected goal) of 2. 18.
Meanwhile, the first 45 minutes against Dortmund was a real disaster for the Bernabeu team. They conceded 2 goals within 4 minutes and almost collapsed. In fairness, Real have not played well this season, but they still won and are unbeaten in La Liga.
In the 60th minute of the match against Dortmund, Antonio Rudiger's header from Kylian Mbappe's pass helped Real reduce the score. Just 2 minutes later, Vinicius brought the match back to the starting line.
After losing the lead, Dortmund tried to defend and still created some dangerous opportunities. However, what came came came when Vazquez scored Real's third goal. To add to the impressive comeback, Vinicius scored 2 more goals late in the match.
When the final whistle blew, Los Blancos' terrible first half was like a distant memory. What remained was Dortmund's stunned performance.
This victory was considered a perfect warm-up for Real before El Clasico at the weekend. Of course, the mistakes of the "White Vultures" in the first half need to be learned from Carlo Ancelotti.
The nature of the new Champions League format, with only 12 out of 36 teams eliminated after the first stage, means that even if they lose to Dortmund, Real still have the strength to continue. And during their recent dominance of the Champions League, Los Blancos have also stumbled in the group stage many times. A notable example is Sheriff Tiraspol's 2-1 win at the Bernabeu in 2021. But in the end, Real still won the championship.
"It was Real Madrid's best second half of the season. We put more pressure on Dortmund than we did in the first half. Vinicius has an extraordinary personality. I think our team didn't play well in the first 45 minutes.
Not only shy, Real Madrid also played with lack of energy in the first half. We defended with a low formation and did not put enough pressure on Dortmund's goal. I know we have more energy than that," Ancelotti said after the match.
