For 43 minutes this looked like being awkward. RB Leipzig were the better side for much of the first half at the Bernabeu, Thibaut Courtois had to be sharp twice, and Real Madrid were short of rhythm. Then Bernardo Silva poked in his first goal for the club, and the evening turned into a 4-1 win that keeps Jose Mourinho's side on a perfect record in the Champions League.
Leipzig had their chances and did not take them
Christopher Nkunku and Romulo both got sights of goal early and both found Courtois in the way. Leipzig pressed high, moved the ball quickly through midfield, and for a spell gave the impression that a goal was coming at the wrong end for the hosts. They did not get it, and in Europe that bill usually arrives.
It arrived two minutes before the break. Arda Guler struck from distance, the ball deflected off a defender and squirmed between Maarten Vandevoordt's legs, and Bernardo was there to force it over the line. Not the goal the former Manchester City midfielder will have imagined for his first in white. He will not be fussy about it.
Guler, Mbappe and a night for the finishers
Vandevoordt deserved better. He tipped a stinging Federico Valverde effort past the post early in the second half, then had no answer when Mbappe headed the ball across the face of goal and Guler arrived to tap in. Mbappe wanted his own. He scooped one into the side netting from a Jude Bellingham cut-back before finally bending a finish into the corner from the edge of the box, his twelfth in twelve appearances this season.
Tidiam Gomis gave Leipzig something to take home, finishing off a tidy move, and for about 120 seconds the scoreline looked less brutal. Then Yan Diomande, the £120m summer signing who left Leipzig in the same window, came off the bench and volleyed a spectacular fourth from outside the area against the club that developed him.
A Clasico next, with the record intact
Bellingham was voted player of the match by BBC Sport readers with an average rating of 8.12, which tells you something about how Madrid eventually took control of midfield even on a night when the headlines went to the forwards. Three games, three wins, and a visit from Barcelona on Sunday.
Match facts: Real Madrid 4-1 RB Leipzig, Champions League league phase. Bernardo Silva opened the scoring two minutes before half-time, with Arda Guler, Kylian Mbappé and substitute Yan Diomande adding to it; Tidiam Gomis replied for Leipzig. Real host Barcelona in the first Clasico of the season on Sunday, 25 October (20:00 GMT) and travel to AEK Athens on Wednesday, 4 November (17:45 GMT). Leipzig host Manchester City the same evening at 20:00 GMT.
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