AS Roma 3-4 Real Madrid: a crazy 7-minute comeback that doesn’t hide these 3 Madrid problems

14.10.26 FT Champions League

Roma

3

:

Real Madrid

4

Real Madrid snatched a crazy 4-3 win in Rome, but the performance still raises serious concerns about the team.

Real Madrid produced a completely crazy comeback at the AS Roma. Trailing 3-1 with just a few minutes remaining, José Mourinho’s men turned the match around to eventually win 4-3 in this clash on matchday two of the Champions League. Three goals scored between the 83rd and 90th minutes, all following corners, completely changed the course of the game.

But the final score is extremely flattering for the Madrid side. For a very large part of the match, Roma were superior, more aggressive, more cohesive and, above all, much more dangerous. Without several individual flashes of brilliance and that incredible late spell from set pieces, Real would have struggled to hope to leave the Stadio Olimpico with all three points.

A Madrid defence in disarray

Real’s first major problem lies at the back. With Ibrahima Konaté and Antonio Rüdiger at the heart of the defence, speed is not the back line’s primary asset, and that was evident against a Roma attack led by a particularly lively Donyell Malen.

Madrid’s defensive line often played too high and, above all, with an approximate alignment. Roma’s third goal was the perfect illustration: a defence caught out behind, poor management of distances and a Roma side capable of immediately punishing positioning errors. In this area, Real displayed worrying weaknesses for a team targeting the European title.

A midfield without a genuine creator

Another weakness is the midfield. The trio of Federico Valverde - Aurélien Tchouaméni - Jude Bellingham offers energy, physical presence and the ability to get forward, but far less creativity in tight spaces. Bellingham obviously possesses that extra technical touch, but Real lacked a genuine organiser capable of dictating the tempo and unsettling Roma’s block with his passing.

Against a compact and very well-organised Roma side, Madrid too often relied on individual initiatives to move forward. It is a pattern that has become recurrent since the start of the season.

José Mourinho is still searching for his first-choice XI

Two months into the campaign, José Mourinho still does not seem to have found his reference team. Regular changes to the starting XI inevitably slow the development of automatisms, particularly in movement, defensive cover and build-up patterns.

This instability results in positional errors and a collective unit that is still far from perfectly well-oiled. Despite the victory, Real never gave the impression of genuinely controlling this match before their incredible late revival.

Roma must also be given credit for what they achieved. The Giallorossi delivered a very high-level performance and can have enormous regrets. They had managed to take a 3-1 lead and put Real in serious difficulty before conceding three corners in seven minutes. It was a cruel defeat, given that their performance deserved more.

Real Madrid therefore leave Rome with three points and a spectacular 4-3 scoreline, but certainly not with all the answers. This comeback saves the result, not the numerous weaknesses displayed for more than 80 minutes

Read also: AS Roma - Real Madrid (1-1): Mbappé responds to De Roon in an intense first half

Mahdi Zakaria LAZRI |

Editor

Football web writer creating digital sports content with a focus on news, analysis and stories that reflect passion, accuracy and objectivity.

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