Valverde came off the bench in the 67th minute, and his 92nd-minute strike kept Real Madrid perfect in the Champions League
AEK Athens led twice in Athens, but Bellingham and Mbappé pulled Real Madrid level and their captain won it 3-2 from outside the box.
Nov 5, 2026
Federico Valverde, Real Madrid’s captain, did not start in Athens. He came on for Yan Diomande in the 67th minute, and in the 92nd, with the score 2-2, Brahim Díaz set him up outside the box. His right-footed shot flew across Alberto Brignoli and into the top corner. That gave Real Madrid a 3-2 win over AEK Athens on Wednesday and kept them perfect in the Champions League after four games.
José Mourinho’s side are level with holders Paris Saint-Germain on 12 points, the only two teams in the league phase with four wins from four. Arsenal are third on 10 after their 2-1 win at Slavia Prague the same night.
Behind twice at the Allwyn Arena
AEK made the stronger start and went ahead in the 12th minute. Luka Jović, a former Madrid striker, found Aboubakary Koita, who shifted inside Marc Cucurella and beat Thibaut Courtois. Courtois kept it at one, saving from Jović inside the area.
Jude Bellingham thought he had equalised from close range after 28 minutes, but the flag went up and VAR agreed. Four minutes later he did it properly. Cucurella drove a low ball across and Bellingham flicked it in with his heel from about 12 yards.
The home side went ahead again with 15 minutes left. Koita slipped the ball into Stavros Pilios, and the Albania international finished through Courtois’s legs. Madrid were level within three minutes. Bellingham sent Denzel Dumfries down the right, and his low cross across the six-yard box was turned in by Kylian Mbappé.
That is four Champions League goals in four games for Mbappé this season, one in each. Brignoli then tipped his shot onto the crossbar after Endrick sent him through with about five minutes left, and it looked as if AEK would hold on for a point until Valverde’s strike.
Koita, who had been substituted, was shown a red card after the final whistle.
“I didn’t ask him to shoot”
Mourinho said he had sent Valverde on to attack the space in a game that had opened up, not to shoot from distance. “Fede has that capability,” he told Movistar. “I didn’t ask him to shoot.”
Valverde credited his team-mates for the confidence to try it. “Sometimes I overthink it,” he said.
Mourinho was generous to AEK afterwards, saying they had played better against his side than in any of the matches his staff had analysed. “In the two critical moments, 1-0 and 2-1, we knew how to react,” he said.
Madrid are making a habit of this. It is the second away trip in a row in this competition that they have won late. At Roma they were 3-1 down with seven minutes left and won 4-3. They have now won seven straight games in all competitions.
Bellingham passes Casillas
Bellingham’s night came with a record. At 23 years and 128 days he became the youngest player to make 60 Champions League appearances, overtaking Iker Casillas, who reached the mark at 23 years and 167 days in 2004. Mourinho called him an extraordinary player and said no midfielder in world football is as complete.
Mourinho believes 12 points is enough to go through, and said the target now is the seven or eight more needed to finish in the top eight and skip the playoff round. First, though, there is a La Liga trip to Valencia on Saturday (1:30am IST on Sunday), and he said he would change four or five players for it.