Real Madrid finished the first stage of this season’s Champions League with a comfortable win away to Brest — but it wasn’t enough to secure a top-eight finish and a shortcut to the last 16.
Instead, the reigning European champions will face Manchester City or Celtic in the playoff round next month.
Two goals from Rodrygo and another from Jude Bellingham gave Carlo Ancelotti’s side a 3-0 victory in a match that rarely threatened to slip away from them — even if the atmosphere created by the ‘home’ fans was far from hospitable.
The Athletic’s Jack Lang and Dermot Corrigan assess the key action…
A match so big it kicked off late
“The match of the century”, local newspaper Ouest-France called it. Denis Le Saint, Brest’s loveable president, was of the same view. “It’s the club’s biggest-ever game,” he told L’Equipe on the morning of a date that had been circled in local calendars for months. “I didn’t even imagine playing in Europe when I took over. So to play against Real Madrid is exceptional.”
This was always going to be a celebratory occasion, a dreamscape made reality in the distinctive mizzle of France’s northwest frontierland. Madrid do Brittany: even for Brest fans, increasingly able to forget the rules that ordinarily govern these things, it was all a bit surreal.
At kick-off time, the pitch was obscured by smoke, the result of dozens of flares let off in the Tribune Est of the Stade de Roudourou. This meant the game ultimately kicked off five minutes late on a night when all 18 Champions League matches were due to be played simultaneously.
If you didn’t know that this wasn’t Brest’s stadium, didn’t know they have been a travelling circus all through their campaign, you would have had no reason to suspect. Elsewhere, thousands of flags flew — not in Brest red, but the black and white of Brittany, the club’s success embraced by an entire region. Ennobling it, too.
Madrid scored, then scored twice more. No one cared. Kids huddled with their parents and grandparents, booed Kylian Mbappe, took pictures. This was football as communal event, the result academic.
“I want to make Brest a big club,” Le Saint had said. “And that’s what we’ve started to do.”
To read through Brest’s squad or look at their crumbling Francis Le-Ble stadium is to know that he has a lot of work to do. But here, in the disbelieving warmth of a crowd still coming to terms with what their local heroes have achieved this season, it was tempting to believe that Le Saint will make good on his word.
Jack Lang
Rodrygo and Vazquez versatility pays off
Two players who have spent much of their Madrid careers on the right wing ended up playing key parts in tonight’s win from different areas of the pitch.
Lucas Vazquez has been Ancelotti’s first choice at right-back ever since club captain Dani Carvajal was injured back in October, even though the 33-year-old Galician has spent most of his career further forward.
That ability in attack is generally useful for Madrid in games where they are mostly on the attack and Vazquez was a regular threat throughout. Early on, he skipped past Brest’s own stand-in left-back Mathias Pereira Lage, who pulled him down and was booked.
Vazquez’s best moment came just after half-time, when he got right around the back of the Brest defence and the pull-back was perfect for Bellingham to side-foot in Madrid’s second goal.
Vinicius Junior’s suspension for tonight’s game meant that Rodrygo got to switch wings and play on his favoured left side of the attack. The in-form Brazilian took advantage with another double to follow last week’s double strike from the other side against Red Bull Salzburg.
The opening goal came when Rodrygo took a Luka Modric pass towards the left of the Brest penalty area, turned easily past the lumbering Brendan Chardonnet and slotted a low shot in off the far post. It was a hugely efficient finish from a player who is doing all he can to retain a place in Ancelotti’s ‘gala XI’.
Rodrygo’s second was a real poacher’s effort — when Mbappe’s snapshot was beaten out by Brest keeper Marco Bizot, the Brazilian reacted quicker than anyone else and showed fine technique and confidence to volley the loose ball to the net.
Ancelotti does not have a huge squad, but he has lots of players who are comfortable in more than one position. Aurelien Tchouameni may have suffered tonight — but Vazquez and Rodrygo both showed how their qualities can be useful in different areas of the pitch.
Dermot Corrigan
Tchouameni struggles again
Given the huge gulf in budget, and clear gulf in quality, between the two sides, it should be worrying for Madrid just how difficult Tchouameni found things in the middle of the back four.
Brest seemed to have identified him as a weak link — with big centre-forwards Ludovic Ajorque and Mama Balde often looking to challenge him physically and regularly getting rewards for doing so.
After just five minutes, Tchouameni first gave the ball away out wide, then gave away a dangerous free kick closer to goal when trying unsuccessfully to make amends. His third foul of the game brought a deserved booking (just after Rodrygo scored) for a pull on Ajorque’s shirt after the huge No 26 had easily outmuscled his marker and turned near halfway.
After half-time came a huge let-off — for both Tchouameni and his team. Ajorque was able to easily turn on the edge of the area and get off a shot which went through his marker’s legs to the Madrid net. The narrowest of offside calls disallowed the goal but did not make the defending any better.
This was far from the first time that Tchouameni has struggled playing out of his favoured position, but nobody around the Bernabeu thinks the club hierarchy are going to change course at this late stage in the January window and add more experienced centre-back cover before next Monday. There are also hopes that versatile defender David Alaba is back to his best after his long-term absence.
The more established teams Madrid will meet in the play-off will likely cause different challenges for Ancelotti’s defence, but even in tonight’s relatively straightforward final group game, there were signs of a potential issue for the defending champions later in the competition.
Dermot Corrigan
Night to forget for a homegrown hero
Brest tried their hearts out at the Roudourou, as they have throughout their Champions League run. At some point, though, you always felt that the sheer, diamond-cut quality of Madrid’s attackers would hold sway. So it was, with one particular Brest defender the luckless fall guy.
Chardonnet is a Brest legend. Born a stone’s throw away from the Stade Francis-Le Ble, he has played for the club since he was a child, leaving only for a brief loan spell away earlier in his career. He is not just the captain of Eric Roy’s side. He is its compass.
What he is not — quite — is an elite centre-back. He made a costly error against Shakhtar Donetsk last week and was run ragged here, particularly by Mbappe and Rodrygo, both of whom drifted into his zone constantly.
It was Chardonnet who grasped at thin air when Rodrygo waltzed through to score the opening goal. Then, just as Brest were building some momentum early in the second half, the 30-year-old paid about three times the asking price for a Mbappe dummy on the halfway line. The result? A desperate, doomed sprint back to the penalty area and a perfect view of Bellingham’s tap-in.
People from this rugged, overlooked corner of France are known for their hardiness. Chardonnet — and Brest — will come again. But they were taught hard lessons here.
Jack Lang
What did Ancelotti say?
On Rodrygo, Ancelotti told his post-match press conference: “I’ve always seen him well, since the first year (he was in charge). When he scored the two goals against City (in the 2022 Champions League semi-final second leg), when he helped us win the Champions League. There are moments when he can score more or less, but the truth is that he always works well for the team. His help is very important even if he doesn’t score.”
Ancelotti also praised Vazquez for his role in the win. “My opinion is always the same about Lucas,” the Italian said. “He always plays very well, always at the highest level and he deserves the support of the whole stadium.”
“We are getting (into) a good dynamic physically, mentally,” Ancelotti added. “I have a lot of confidence in this team because I see a lot of (good) things on the pitch.”
What next for Real Madrid?
Saturday, February 1: Espanyol (Away), La Liga, 8pm GMT, 3pm ET
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(Top photo: Damien Meyer/AFP via Getty Images)
