Three questions and three answers from Real Madrid 1-1 (2-1 agg.) RB Leipzig

Real Madrid celebrated their 122nd birthday with a draw at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, but it was enough to secure a place in the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals as a 1-1 on the night secured a 2-1 aggregate victory over Bundesliga side RB Leipzig. Vinícius Júnior scored to ease the nerves of the home fans, putting the ball in the top corner just after the hour mark, though Will Urban levelled only three minutes later with a diving header.

Three answers

1. Would Nacho return in defence?

At Mestalla, Aurélien Tchouameni accompanied Antonio Rüdiger in the heart of the Real Madrid defence in a pairing that many had been calling for despite Nacho being fully fit. A knock meant he was rested and came on as a late substitute in Valencia, but he was back in the line-up against Leipzig. As has been the trend this season, this was another performance where he let his side down and made a crucial mistake, allowing Orban to get away from him and score for Leipzig to equalise. He won only one of his four duels, and didn’t make a single tackle. With Tchouameni not excelling either in midfield, it did justify those who had argued that the best course of action could be to stick with the same back four.

2. How would Carlo Ancelotti change things without Rodrygo Goes?

One of the major changes to the team was the decision to drop Rodrygo from the starting XI. The 23 year old had only scored one goal in his last 10 matches. Instead, there was a front three with Jude Bellingham operating as a false nine and Vinícius Júnior and Fede Valverde on either flank. “The idea was to press more. With means of energy,” Ancelotti explained post-match, clearly looking to change tact and look to deploy the kind of pressing game which we very rarely see from Real Madrid. They clearly wanted to take the game to Leipzig and look to take advantage of the fact that the Germans would have to play with the intention of scoring to get back into the game.

3. Would this second leg be as tricky as the first?

Some of the more optimistic Real Madrid fans thought that the hard part of this tie was done and dusted after victory in Germany, but the first leg should have instead shown them just how big an ask this would be. German sides are rarely easy to break down in Europe, as Union Berlin have already shown when they visited the Bernabéu this season, and Leipzig showed a great ambition to compete with Real Madrid, rather than looking to simply contain the giants. Real Madrid had an off day, as Carlo Ancelotti himself highlighted after the game, but Leipzig were in contention to take the win from this tie because they looked to challenge their opponents.

Three questions

1. Did the front three experiment go wrong?

It would be easy to say that when the coach is forced to reintroduce a player he’d left out at half-time, it’s because his plan didn’t quite work out. In this case, that’s because it didn’t. Carlo Ancelotti got this one wrong, but perhaps of more concern, seemed not to learn from previous similar trials. Against both Barcelona and Atlético this season, a similar over-crowding of the midfield approach failed to produce the desired result. The decision to change things at half-time, at which point Leipzig had almost three times the xG of Real Madrid, reflected another failure. It’s rare that Carlo Ancelotti gets it so wrong, but on this occasion he did. “The reality is that we played very slowly. We played with a low block, very slow, with little verticality. A lot of lateral passing. It was not the best night. We have to say ‘mea culpa’,” the Italian reflected post-game.

2. Would Nacho be starting if he wasn’t captain?

There were whistles and boos at times at the Bernabéu, and some of those were directed towards the team’s captain, Nacho. The harsh reality is that Nacho is only playing in this level of game because of the injury crisis that has decimated the Real Madrid defence. Éder Militão and David Alaba would both be ahead of him in the pecking order, particularly on the left of the central defensive pairing, and Nacho would only be a rotation option to get minutes against the lower-ranked sides of LALIGA. He could perform well at that level, but it leaves Real Madrid in the unusual situation of having a captain who is rarely featuring. After captaincies like those of Fernando Hierro, Iker Casillas and Sergio Ramos, that takes some adjustment, as was already experienced with Marcelo. However, just like the Brazilian in his final season, it seems unlikely that he would be starting if it were not for the armband and injuries elsewhere.

3. Who next?

The most obvious question of all for Real Madrid is who will they face next in the Champions League. Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain are the three teams who have already booked quarter-final tickets, with Arsenal trailing Porto, Barcelona and Napoli level, Inter Milan beating Atlético Madrid and Dortmund and PSV Eindhoven tying after the first leg. The first four teams qualified would seem to be the favourites, though Inter will claim that they can compete to that level too should they see off Atleti. Real Madrid fear nobody at this stage, but this game was a reminder that they are mortal, and had Dani Olmo’s shot been a few inches closer to the goal, this could’ve been a different story.