Real Madrid erases 3-1 deficit in stunning finish, beats Roma 4-3 in Champions League

With barely five minutes left, Roma was still leading 3-1 at the Stadio Olimpico. What followed was a complete turnaround by Real Madrid, which took the match 3-4 with two goals in second-half stoppage time and another in the 82nd minute. A Champions League league-phase match that looked all but decided ended with Jose Mourinho's side claiming all three points away from home, as Gian Piero Gasperini watched everything he had built over the course of the game unravel in just seven minutes.

The story started with Roma ahead: in the 19th minute, Marten de Roon connected on a right-footed strike from outside the box, assisted by Matias Soule, to make it 1-0. Real Madrid wasted no time responding. Five minutes later, Kylian Mbappe leveled things with a right-footed shot from outside the area, set up by a header from Yan Diomande, and the first half ended 1-1.

In the second half, Roma retook control of the match. Donyell Malen struck twice in seven minutes: first in the 50th minute, with a left-footed finish from inside the box set up by Rodrigo Mora, and then in the 56th, with a right-footed shot off a counterattack built from a through ball by Soule, a goal that stood after a VAR review. At 3-1, the match looked settled in the home side's favor.

The final stretch that changed everything

But Real Madrid had other plans. In the 82nd minute, Carlos Espi finished from close range off a corner kick, in a play that also needed VAR approval before counting: 3-2. Two minutes later, Endrick headed home the equalizer from inside the box off a cross from Arda Guler following another corner. And in the 89th minute, Guler himself delivered another corner for Antonio Rudiger to finish from close range and make it a final 3-4. In barely seven minutes, Real Madrid had flipped a match it had been losing.

The match statistics reflect an even contest, though with some numbers favoring Real Madrid in the opponent's end of the field:

Roma had more of the ball and more clear chances, but Real Madrid was more efficient from corners, which produced two of the three goals in the comeback. In xG calculated after the fact based on the match's shots, Real Madrid generated 2.307 against Roma's 1.682, a figure that backs up how things ultimately played out on the scoreboard, even if it arrived through as abrupt an ending as this one.

Before kickoff, our projection gave Roma a 34% chance of winning, 27% for a draw and 39% for a Real Madrid victory, with an expected goals split of 1.42 for the home side and 1.54 for the visitors, for a total of 2.97. The final result, with seven goals on the board, far exceeded that goal projection, though the outcome (an away win) did land on the side the numbers favored.

In the league phase standings, Real Madrid came into the match with 6 points from 2 games played, while Roma had just 1 point in the same number of appearances, a 5-point gap between the two sides before this result. For Mourinho's team, the win not only erases what had looked like a lost cause in the closing minutes, it also offers a display of character that will likely matter more than any possession or corner-kick statistic. For Roma, meanwhile, there's the bitter feeling of having had the match won, only to let it slip away in the final stretch.