“We can’t crap our pants,” Deniz Undav had insisted and Stuttgart did not but nor did they win. Because if the German striker was right to say that “if you fear Real Madrid because it’s Real Madrid, you needn’t even fly”, if he had his moment here, heading in the goal that brought promise of a memorable night, and if he and his teammates were far from overawed on their return to this competition 15 years later, actually emerging victorious against the club that consider it their own is another matter.
For much of an enjoyable night of 37 shots and wide open spaces, Stuttgart were as good as their illustrious opponents, perhaps better. They went to the most emblematic arena of all and went behind to Kylian Mbappé’s first European goal for Madrid. But Undav had equalised, they had gone in search of more and they might have got it too. In the end, though, Real Madrid are, well, Real Madrid and so it was that with seven minutes left Antonio Rüdiger’s header from a corner tilted this their way and, with Stuttgart throwing everything at them, teenager Endrick raced free in added time to end it, wrapping up a 3-1 home win.
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