RB Leipzig 3-2 Real Madrid: Carlo Ancelotti’s Champions League holders lose for the first time

Champions League holders Real Madrid suffered their first loss of the season at the hands of an unbridled RB Leipzig who earned their 3-2 home win.

Carlo Ancelotti’s team had won 14 of their 16 matches played with only two draws. This was the first time they had lost since May when they were beaten 1-0 at Atletico Madrid after resting half of the team as they had just won the league.

There were also rotations in this game, but that shouldn’t take anything away from Marco Rose’s team.

Real Madrid were already through and avoiding defeat would have secured the top spot, so with players starting to show signs of fatigue, Ancelotti equipped David Alaba, Dani Carvajal, Luka Modric, Karim Benzema and Fede Valverde.

All five were missed early on as Leipzig intimidated the holders in the RB Arena and rightly led 2-0 within the first 20 minutes.

First it was central defender Josko Gvardiol who headed in after Thibaut Courtois pushed a header from Andre Silva into the area.

It was the first Champions League goal that Courtois had conceded this season and Madrid soon found themselves nearly two behind as Amadou Haidara went clear.

Courtois came rushing out of his goal, but didn’t get close enough to the Leipzig attacker to even make a mistake on him and earn a certain red card. Edu Militao recovered and the attacker shot into the side net.

Christopher Nkunku then tested Courtois with a curling shot that pushed Courtois out for a corner, but Nkunku scored on his next try.

Leipzig took a smart corner that went out and then back into the area with some quick passes. David Raum went in front of goal and when a block from Aurelien Tchouameni led the ball to Nkunku, he scored into the roof of the net.

Madrid were stunned, but 10 minutes before half time they finally came close to scoring. Lucas Vazquez played the ball forward to Vinicius who quickly passed the ball to Rodrgyo whose shot was saved by Janis Blaswich.

The keeper then blunts a shot from Vinicius. The beast had moved now and a minute before the break there was a bang. A quick pass led to the impressive Lucas playing in Marco Asensio, who charged to the right and crossed in front of Vinicius to flash a header past Blaswich.

Tchouameni might have equalized for Madrid on the restart, but Vinicius’ assist saved his shot.

Leipzig had slowed down a bit now that they had the advantage, although no one had mentioned the impressive Nkunku who was still hard to comprehend for Madrid.

Ancelotti refreshed his full-backs with Alaba and Carvajal coming in, but Leipzig also had quality on the bench with Timo Werner and Dani Olmo coming in and the first shot just wide of Courtois’ far post with this first touch.

With 15 minutes to go, Madrid still needed a goal for the draw that would secure them first place and Eden Hazard replaced Toni Kroos.

He almost equalized on his first bet. He was the wire connecting a move to the left and when he pinged the ball to Asensio, he went ahead of Vinicius to shoot wide.

It was a false dawn as Leipzig scored a third with their next attack. Mohamed Simakan sprinted clear over the right and crossed the line to Werner, who had come in front of Militao to score from close range at the nearest post. Madrid needed two now and in just 10 minutes.

Rodrygo scored a penalty in the third minute of the three minutes added after he was knocked down.

But there was no time to resume play and the German side had the win they deserved.