Real Madrid turned a 3-1 deficit into a 4-3 win over AS Rome on Wednesday night, and the result changes the shape of the As Roma Vs Real Madrid standings discussion immediately because a match that looked lost ended with Madrid taking the points. The last turn came in the final moments, when Endrick levelled from an Arda Guler corner and Rudiger then scored the winner from another one.
That is why people are looking at As Roma Vs Real Madrid standings now: not because of a routine win, but because Madrid moved from the brink of defeat to a result that could reset its place in the Ligue des Champions. Real Madrid needed the match to reassure after recent poor form, and it did so in the most extreme way possible, by surviving a night when AS Rome had put the Spanish side under real pressure for long stretches.
AS Rome struck first through Marten de Roon in the 20th minute after a shot was deflected by Ibrahima Konaté. Kylian Mbappé brought Real Madrid level five minutes later with a slightly deflected strike after a pass from Yan Diomandé, but the game swung back to AS Rome after the break when Donyell Malen scored in the 51st minute and then again in the 57th to make it 3-1. José Mourinho had started Vinicius Jr. alongside Mbappé, Yan Diomandé and Jude Bellingham, yet the Brazilian was replaced in the 58th minute as Madrid searched for a response.
The comeback matters because it was not neat or controlled. Real Madrid looked defensively unstable and spent much of the match chasing, then had to force the issue late through Carlos Espi’s 83rd-minute goal before the two Arda Guler corners changed everything. That sequence is the part that will linger for AS Rome: a side that led 3-1 and still left empty-handed. Madrid, meanwhile, leaves with three points and the sort of comeback that can cover a lot of flaws, even if the back line again gave away too much.
There is one more reason the night will be remembered. Vinicius Jr. had just learned of a four-match suspension in Liga after a hair-pulling incident against Villarreal, and his withdrawal after 58 minutes only sharpened the sense that Madrid are still working through a difficult spell. They escaped it here, but the standings are only part of the story: the larger question is whether a result built on late rescue acts can steady Real Madrid, or whether it simply hides how vulnerable they looked before the final minutes.
