Valverde's Stoppage-Time Stunner Rescues Real Madrid at AEK Athens, 3–2

Real Madrid were behind twice in Athens and still left with everything. A 3–2 win at AEK Athens on Champions League Matchday 4 keeps José Mourinho's side perfect — 12 points from four matches, second behind Paris Saint-Germain on goal difference — and it took a substitute's 25-yard strike in the second minute of stoppage time to finish the job.

The winner was not even supposed to be out there long. Federico Valverde started on the bench as a precaution — Athlon Sports reported before the match that Mourinho was managing the midfielder's workload after the hamstring discomfort that had kept him out against Racing Santander — and he was only called on at 67 minutes, with the match level and Madrid running out of road.

Madrid's side had a patched-together feel in places — Denzel Dumfries at right-back, Bernardo Silva alongside Eduardo Camavinga in midfield, Vinícius Júnior back in the eleven after his domestic ban, per Managing Madrid's report — and Marko Nikolić's AEK set up to make them work for every yard. Luka Jovic, once of Madrid, led the home line and forced Courtois into work early; the AEK crowd, protecting a seven-match winning run at their own ground, could feel the upset.

AEK made their early pressure pay at 12 minutes, Aboubakary Koita cutting inside and firing into the top corner from just inside the box, according to Reuters' match report. Thibaut Courtois, captaining Madrid on the night, denied former Madrid striker Luka Jovic, and Jude Bellingham had an effort ruled out for offside at 27 minutes before he equalised five minutes later — a deft backheel flick from Marc Cucurella's low cross. It came on Bellingham's 60th Champions League appearance; TNT Sports noted he is the youngest player ever to reach that number, and Flashscore made him its man of the match.

Madrid ran the game without running away with it — 70 percent of the ball and 24 shots to AEK's nine across the night — and the hosts punished them for it. At 75 minutes Koita drove forward again and slipped in Stavros Pilios, whose low shot went through Courtois's legs to restore AEK's lead.

The lead lasted three minutes. Kylian Mbappé tapped in Denzel Dumfries's cross at 78 minutes — a goal in a sixth successive Champions League appearance, Flashscore's report noted — and then saw an effort tipped onto the crossbar by Alberto Brignoli as Madrid poured forward.

In stoppage time the pressure told. Valverde collected Brahim Díaz's pass — Sportradar's match record credits the assist — and let fly from 25 yards at 90'+2', the strike nestling in the corner beyond Brignoli. Endrick, sent on in the same 67th-minute double change, had helped prise the opening, working the move that ended with Mbappé striking the bar minutes earlier, per Managing Madrid's report. The winner fits the pattern of this Madrid side: TNT Sports, citing Opta, reported Madrid have now scored seven goals in the last 15 minutes of second halves in this season's competition, more than any other team. Sports Mole's post-match notes put the winner in the record books, too — Madrid's 49th stoppage-time goal in the competition's history, the most any club has scored. The full match archive is in the Game Center.

AEK's night ended in frustration — a late red card for Koita, sent off for dissent at 90'+5', and their seven-match winning home run in all competitions is over. They stay 30th on three points. Madrid's own run stretches the other way: a seventh successive win in all competitions, four from four in Europe, and a perfect start preserved by the player they were trying to protect. More football coverage is on the Previously Sports front.

It was 1–1 at half time, and Valverde’s entrance at 67 minutes came for Yan Diomande.