AEK Athens 2-3 Real Madrid: Valverde comes off the bench to win it in stoppage time
AEK led twice through Koïta and Pilios. Bellingham and Mbappé pulled Mourinho's side level, and substitute Federico Valverde curled in the winner from outside the box in the 92nd minute.
José Mourinho’s Real Madrid trailed twice in Athens and still left with a 3-2 win. Federico Valverde, kept on the bench after a hamstring problem, came on midway through the second half and bent a shot from outside the box into the top corner in the 92nd minute, as the official match page on Real Madrid’s site records.
AEK went ahead, twice
The hosts started brighter. Thibaut Courtois had to stop Mijat Gacinovic and Harold Moukoudi inside ten minutes, and on 11 Aboubakary Koïta finished off a Luka Jović pass for 1-0. Jude Bellingham levelled just after the half-hour, meeting a Marc Cucurella cross, and that was the score at the break.
Madrid pushed hard after the restart and Alberto Brignoli kept saying no. Then, with 75 minutes gone, an AEK break ended with Stavros Pilios scoring from Koïta’s pass. The lead lasted three minutes before Kylian Mbappé equalised from close range, set up by Denzel Dumfries.
Mourinho’s changes
Bernardo Silva started and was behind several of Madrid’s better first-half chances, feeding Yan Diomande and Cucurella. He made way around the 68th minute in the double change that sent on Endrick and Valverde, and it was Valverde, from a Brahim Díaz pass (another substitute), who settled it. Endrick had come close moments earlier with a blocked shot.
There was one more blow for AEK after the whistle. Koïta, who scored one and set up the other, was shown a red card once the game was over.
Little more than a week after the win at Barcelona, Madrid had to grind out another tight away game, and Mbappé was on the scoresheet again. This time, though, the goal everyone will replay came from a man who was not meant to start.
By Vasco Almada
Image: Real Madrid / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)
