Real Madrid thrash Leipzig 4-1 as Inter end Champions League losing run

Real Madrid made it three wins from three in the Champions League league phase with a 4-1 victory over RB Leipzig on Wednesday night, while Inter Milan finally got off the mark in this season's competition by beating Shakhtar Donetsk 1-0 at San Siro.

Madrid's win leaves them on nine points from three matches, the perfect start they would have wanted with the first Clasico of the season against Barcelona arriving on Sunday.

The scoring began two minutes before half-time, when Bernardo Silva found the net for the first time since his summer move from Manchester City. It was a moment he will have been waiting for, and it settled a game that had been level until then.

Arda Güler doubled the lead in the 52nd minute, and from there Madrid were in control.

Kylian Mbappé made it three in the 83rd minute, a goal ESPN reported was his 12th of the season. Tidiam Gomis pulled one back for Leipzig two minutes later, but any hint of a nervous finish was snuffed out when Yan Diomande scored in the 87th minute.

That goal came against Diomande's former club. ESPN reported that he left Leipzig in a summer deal worth a potential €140 million ($189m), and scoring against them inside his first few months at Madrid will not have gone unnoticed.

Four scorers and a settled squad

What will please Madrid most is the spread of the scoring. Four different players found the net, two of them summer arrivals, and Mbappé's tally of 12 for the season shows the main striker is in form as the fixture list gets heavier.

Silva's first goal matters too. A player of his experience was always likely to adapt, but a goal in a Champions League win removes any lingering question about when he would start contributing in front of goal.

France 24 described the result as Madrid's third Champions League victory in as many games, and on this evidence the league phase is going exactly as they would have planned it.

Inter grind it out with 10 men

Inter's evening was far less comfortable, but the outcome was arguably more important.

Alessandro Bastoni was sent off in the 68th minute for a second bookable offence, leaving Inter to see out the final stages with 10 men. Rather than retreat, they found a winner nine minutes later through Carlos Augusto, whose 77th-minute goal was enough to beat Shakhtar.

According to Inter's own report, it was the club's first Champions League win of the season. BBC Sport reported that it ended a four-game losing streak in the competition, which explains why a narrow win over Shakhtar at home carried so much weight.

ESPN's standings table shows Inter with one win, no draws and two defeats after three league-phase matches. Shakhtar, by contrast, have one win, one draw and one defeat, so this was not a result against a side with nothing to play for.

The red card is a concern. Bastoni will be missed, and Inter have little margin for error after two early defeats. But a win with 10 men is the kind of result that can steady a squad, and Inter needed something to hold on to.

What comes next

Madrid's attention turns immediately to Barcelona. The first Clasico of the season is on Sunday, 25 October, with kick-off at 20:00 GMT, and Madrid go into it unbeaten in Europe and with their attack firing.

Their next Champions League assignment is a trip to Greece to face AEK Athens on Wednesday, 4 November, at 17:45 GMT.

Leipzig return to Bundesliga action on Saturday, 24 October, when they host SV Elversberg at 13:30 UTC. Their next European match is a home game against Manchester City on Wednesday, 4 November, at 20:00 GMT. City are at Aston Villa in the Premier League on Saturday at 11:30 UTC before that trip to Germany.