Whenever a team plays against Real Madrid, the players are always motivated. They want to check how they fare against the current European champions, and deep in their mind, they are also thinking about Moldovan minnows Sheriff Tiraspol, who miraculously won last year in Madrid. And with that thoughts, Leipzig players and their new coach Marco Rose came to Santiago Bernabeu and played a good game, even had two great chances, but in the end, Real prevailed even without injured Karim Benzema and won 2-0.6 – Federico Valverde 🇺🇾 has been involved in six goals in his last nine games for @realmadrid in all competitions (3 goals and 3 assists), as many as in his previous 87 games for Los Blancos (4 and 2). Wings. pic.twitter.com/vJiJNHdtlx— OptaJose (@OptaJose) September 14, 2022 This game will be quickly forgotten by the players and the crowd, but not by Carlo Ancelotti. The Italian tactician will be worried with his team’s defensive display, considering that Christopher Nkunku and especially Timo Werner (of all people) were ‘frying’ Real’s defenders for most of the night. In the end, it was Federico Valverde’s cameo which brought the victory to Real, along with Asensio’s late time goal, and not the collective and powerful display of the whole team.Amadou Haidara replaced the injured Konrad Laimer in midfield for the guests, while Toni Kroos was only among the Real subs, while Nacho started as captain, and Eduardo Camavinga also came in. The first half could be summed up like this: Leipzig got a bit lucky towards the end of the half, but they might have been a goal or two up by then. The guests were not afraid of Real and used the speed of Timo Werner and Christopher Nkunku to attack from the counter. They nearly did it twice, but the Frenchman was not precise, first in the 5th minute (Courtois saved it) and then in the 35th, both times after good runs from Werner, who gave headache to the Real defense. Carlo Ancelotti’s men finally got the hold of the ball and started to attack, but basically only Luka Modric had a good chance near the end of the half.The second half was a rather dull affair, with both teams annulling each other until substute Asensio and winger Valverde started to harass visiting keeper Gulacsi. Finally in the 80th minute, the Uruguayan took the ball from Vinicius and made a precise shot for 1-0. Asensio played a good 30 minutes and ended the game with a nice goal in the 92nd minute.UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE – ROUND 2TuesdayPlzen – Inter 0-2 (0-1)/Dzeko 20, Dumfries 70/Sporting – Tottenham 2-0 (0-0)/Paulinho 90, Gomes 90+3/Liverpool – Ajax 2-1 (1-1)/Salah 18, Matip 89 – Kudus 27/Leverkusen – Atl.Madrid 2-0 (0-0)/Andrich 84, Diaby 87/Porto – Club Brugge 0-4 (0-1)/Jutgla 15, Sowah 47, Olsen 52, Nusa 89/Bayern – Barcelona 2-0 (0-0)/Hernandez 50, Sane 54/Olympique Marseille (3.60) Eintr.Frankfurt 0-1 (0-1)/Lindstrom 43/WednesdayAC Milan – Dinamo Zagreb 3-1 (1-0)/Giroud 45 pen, Saelemaekers 47, Pobega 77 – Orsic 56/Shakhtar – Celtic 1-1 (1-1)/Mudryk 29 – Bondarenko 10 og/Chelsea – Salzburg 1-1 (1-1)/Sterling 48 – Okafor 75/Real Madrid – RB Leipzig 2-0 (0-0)/Valverde 80, Asensio 90+1/Copenhagen- Sevilla 0-0Man.City – Dortmund 2-1 (0-0)/Stones 80, Haaland 84 – Bellingham 56/Juventus – Benfica 1-2 (1-1)/Milik 4 – Joao Mario 43 pen, Neres 55/Maccabi Haifa – PSG 1-3 (1-1)/Chery 24 – Messi 37, Mbappe 69, Neymar 88/Rangers – Napoli 0-3 (0-0)/Politano 68 pen, Raspadori 85, Ndombele 90+1/***odds are subject to change***
