MADRID – ‘Our crown, our trophy’, said the banner, which was held up by fans behind the Santiago Bernabeu south goal before kick-off.

Real Madrid are the reigning European champions, the 15-time UEFA Champions League winners and of course the comeback king, as they showed once again in this unpredictable, hugely entertaining 5-2 win over Borussia Dortmund.

This is a strange Madrid team, full of elite players but often poorly functioning as a unit. They flirted with embarrassment against Dortmund before deciding to play the goals and turn the match around, cheered on by the Bernabeu crowd.

In the first half they were poor: vulnerable in defence, non-existent in midfield and hesitant in attack. In the second half they looked like an unstoppable force of nature, led by the unstoppable Vinícius Júnior. The Brazilian scored a hat-trick, which is a contender for his best performance of his career so far. This was Ballon d’Or worthy. He might have one by the end of this month.

In the old Champions League format, Madrid never managed to qualify from the group stage. Here they ran a real risk of starting the new competition phase with two defeats in three games. Their 1-0 defeat to Lille on matchday two could have been dismissed as an anomaly – Madrid created nine chances there, with an xG (expected goals) of 2.18, but lost 1-0 – but Tuesday’s performance in the first half went 2-0 against Dortmund and conceded twice in four minutes, making it look more like a trend.

Madrid are not playing well this season, but they are still winning games and are undefeated in LaLiga. There was optimism, excitement and anticipation leading up to kick-off here, the feeling of a big European draw and a repeat of last season’s Wembley final. The atmosphere created by Dortmund’s thousands of traveling fans helped. Midway through the first half, their coordinated, massive bounce caused the desks in the Bernabeu press box to gently move up and down all the way across the stadium. On the field, their team gave them every reason to jump up and down.

Donyell Malen’s opening goal after 31 minutes was well worked, a team action that ended with Malen on the ball, in space, in front of goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois. Three minutes later, Malen crossed for Jamie Bynoe-Gittens and scored Dortmund’s second, sprinting past the dozing Lucas Vázquez at the far post.

It didn’t take long for Madrid to come alive, Rodrygo – back in the XI here in his favorite league after three consecutive games on the bench – and Jude Bellingham both hitting the woodwork within seconds of each other. But then it was Dortmund who again came closest to a third before half-time, with Courtois making a full-force save from Julian Brandt.

The Bernabeu crowd whistled their team off the pitch at half-time, their pride prickling. In the second half a reaction felt almost inevitable. It came in the 60th minute when Antonio Rüdiger’s powerful header from Kylian Mbappé’s cross made it 2-1, before Vinícius made it 2-2 minutes later after a nervous wait for an offside call to be overturned on the pitch.

Then Madrid had to wait. They pressed for a winner as Dortmund tried to hold on and occasionally threaten, if they could, on half-time. When the time came, Madrid’s third goal came from Vazquez, before a breathtaking late double from Vinícius left the result beyond doubt. At the final whistle, Madrid’s poor first half felt like a distant memory, the victory ultimately so comfortable, so overwhelming, that what came before could almost be dismissed as irrelevant.

Vinicius carried the match ball off the pitch and will make headlines as the game’s outstanding player. In preparation for Saturday El Clasico Things don’t get much better against Barcelona in LaLiga, even if Madrid’s first-half shortcomings suggest there are still plenty of reasons for concern.

The nature of this new Champions League format, which sees only 12 of the 36 teams eliminated after the competition phase, means that even if Madrid were defeated, Madrid might still have qualified for the knockout stages. And it’s worth remembering that they weren’t immune to the occasional misstep in the group stage. Remember when the Moldovan sheriff won Tiraspol 2-1 at the Bernabeu in 2021? Madrid won the Champions League that season.

But in the end, there was no misstep here. It was business as usual. After this second half, Madrid will be seen as one of the favorites to win the competition again in 2025. And with Vinicius in this kind of unplayable form, that’s hard to argue with.