AS Roma 3-4 Real Madrid: Mbappé breaks the deadlock, three late goals break Roma's heart

For 83 minutes, AS Roma were about to beat Real Madrid. For the last seven, they watched three goals go in at the other end and lost 3-4. It is the kind of match line that reads better for the side that lost the lead than the side that lost the game, and few Champions League matchday 2 results anywhere in Europe will have swung this hard, this late.

Marten de Roon gave Roma an early lead in the 20th minute, finishing a move started by Matìas Soulè, and Kylian Mbappé levelled five minutes later, set up by Yan Diomande. Donyell Malen then took over: his first goal, in the 51st minute, came from a Rodrigo Mora pass and put Roma back in front, and his second six minutes later — this time created by Soulè again — made it 3-1 and had the Stadio Olimpico in full voice. Real Madrid looked beaten with half an hour left. Then, in the space of seven second-half minutes, everything turned: Carlos Espí scored unassisted in the 83rd minute, Endrick headed in an Arda Güler cross two minutes later, and Antonio Rüdiger volleyed in another Güler delivery in the 90th to complete a comeback few in the stadium saw coming at 3-1.

Malen's double wasn't enough to hold out

Donyell Malen's brace was his first multi-goal game in the Champions League this season, and for the best part of an hour it looked like it would be the story of the match. Roma's problem was holding what they had built: Gianluca Mancini was booked in the 60th minute, Wesley followed him into referee's notebook nine minutes later, and Lorenzo Pellegrini — only just introduced from the bench — picked up a yellow of his own in the 89th as Roma's discipline cracked in the same closing stretch that cost them the game. Real Madrid, for their part, had Álvaro Carreras booked deep into stoppage time, by which point the damage to Roma had already been done.

Real Madrid's bench won the game

All three of Madrid's late goals involved a substitute either scoring or creating: Espí came off the bench to score the equaliser, and Arda Güler — on himself not long before — supplied both of the goals that followed. José Mourinho's changes, introduced as Roma's lead held firm into the final half hour, were the difference between a Real Madrid defeat on the road and a result that keeps them firmly in touch with the top of the Champions League league phase. A team trailing 3-1 with half an hour to go very rarely wins that game — Madrid's bench made sure this one was the exception.

Roma's European night undoes a solid week

Roma had opened the league phase with a 1-1 draw away at Fenerbahçe, a result that kept an otherwise unbeaten start to the season intact, and they arrived at this match on the back of four wins and three draws across their last seven games in all competitions without a single defeat in that run. This result ends that unbeaten streak in the cruellest possible way, with the game seemingly won before Madrid's substitutes turned it around. Mbappé's leveller, for what it's worth, was his first goal of this league-phase campaign after he also scored in Real Madrid's opening win over Inter Milan — he has now scored in both of Madrid's Champions League matches this season.

Match facts

• 20' — Marten de Roon (AS Roma), assist Matìas Soulè
• 25' — Kylian Mbappé (Real Madrid), assist Yan Diomande
• 51' — Donyell Malen (AS Roma), assist Rodrigo Mora
• 57' — Donyell Malen (AS Roma), assist Matìas Soulè
• 83' — Carlos Espí (Real Madrid)
• 85' — Endrick (Real Madrid), assist Arda Güler, header
• 90' — Antonio Rüdiger (Real Madrid), assist Arda Güler, volley
• Stadio Olimpico, Rome — Champions League league phase, matchday 2, Wednesday 14 October 2026

What's next

Real Madrid, 4th in La Liga on 18 points from eight games, move level on points with the leading pack of the Champions League league phase after winning both of their opening matches, home and away, by a single goal. Roma, 3rd in Serie A on 14 points from six games and still unbeaten domestically, will have to regroup quickly: a result like this one, built on a lead they held until the final ten minutes, is the kind of night that can define a league-phase campaign either way depending on how a side responds to it.