Real Madrid 0-0 Union Berlin – Champions League LIVE: Rodrygo goes close with two chances for Los Blancos as they crank up pressure on Union Berlin

Lots of good chances for Real Madrid here. Eduardo Camavinga seems to have found another gear and feinted into the box, with the hosts eventually winning a corner.

Here we go. Rodrygo just had two chances in quick succession. He burst into the box for the first and forced a save, then cannoned a shot off the post for the second. That’s more like it for Real Madrid and maybe the bets chance of the game for the second effort, even if it was on him in a flash. Inches away from a goal.

Union Berlin have started this half fairly well and Robin Gosens just hit the side netting with a shot from the left side of the box.

Union Berlin get us going.

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Luka Modric has looked the most like unlocking union Berlin tonight.

Jude Bellingham started brightly but went missing towards the end of the half, so it’s the incisive passing of Modric doing the heavy lifting tonight.

Joselu and Rodrygo up top hav bene largely ineffective. Joselu glances a couple of headers close near the start of the half but he and his team-mate up front have not moved well enough to find space.

And there we have it. Half-time is upon us and Union can hold their heads high. They started brightly and though they struggled to create chances as we grew deeper into the half, there’s no shame in simply containing Real Madrid.

Poor half for Madrid, excellent for Union.

Madrid need to take the shackles off here.

Luka Modric just lofted a pass through to Rodrygo and, one on one with his marker, he keeps his back to goal and chooses a safe pass. At some point you have to take a risk rather than choose the careful.

Aurelien Tchouameni has been issued a yellow card for a foul on Alex Kral. Union players remostrate and demand a red but a yellow is fair. He slid in and took down Kral, but his studs weren’t too high and it was in Union’s half.

The game has faded largely into a pedestrian affair in the past few minutes.

David Alaba had a shot in a crowded box and Madrid did little from the resulting corner.

Aurelien Tchouameni just whacked a shot into the territory of low-flying aircraft from outside the box. Lots of power on it and not a hint of accuracy. Ends somewhere deep in the stands.

Aissa Laidouni wrote the headlines in his head there with an ambitious and poorly executed overhead kick in the box. It trickled a matter of metres in the wrong direction. Robin Gosens continued the attack and crossed to the near post from the left – into Kepa’s arms.

From about 35 yards, David Alaba blasted a shot over the bar. It was fairly centrral so a shallow angle for a cross, so nothing wrong with having a go.

A minute later, Joselu heads over the bar from a corner kick.

I wouldn’t want to be sat on top of the bar at this rate!

Now Carlo Ancelotti’s side are dictating play. They’re not making many inroads, but Union are pinned back.

Real did give the ball away, but on the counter-attack Union midfielder Aissa Laidouni dithered and pondered and promptly lost the ball for his trouble. Got to be more alert than that.

Robin Gosens pushes high up the left and wins a corner.

Union Berlin look entirely at home here.

Neither side has been dominant. Both have had chances. Madrid have settled into possession nicely in the recent minutes and the ball is stuck to Jude Bellingham’s foot when he dribbles, but they are hardly ‘on top’.

Union have used midfield triangles nicely and their full-backs have been ambitious in their positioning. Don’t picture them as some monolithic, route-one team. They’re not. Besides a couple of lapses when centre-backs resorted to clearances, they’ve been calm in the face of Madrid’s press.

Both teams are trading blows here and looking to break through with balls over the top. Behrens has just looped a header over after a cross from the right, only a few yards out.

Frederik Ronnow is a commanding presence in between the sticks for Union as he deals with a Luka Modric corner and a subsequent cross, claiming the ball confidently.

Joselu just headed wide at the back post after Lucas Vasquez’s cross from the right. That could have easily gone in.

Union fancy their chances with crosses into the box and Madrid were sloppy dealing with it, but Kepa came away with the ball in the end.

Jude Bellingham just swung a lovely ball over the top there and Joselu got his head on it, but it was a comfortable save for Frederik Ronnow.

Kevin Behrens puts a ball in the box for Sheraldo Becker but he can’t convert from close range under pressure from Antonio Rudiger.

Lucas Tousart is booked for a foul on Luka Modric in the middle of the park. Bit of a soft one, a pull bringing the Croatian midfielder down in the first minute by the half-way line.

Real Madrid get us underway.

Some hymn-like music oozes around the ground as the players and fans remember those who have lost their lives in Morocco and Libya recently.

The Champions League theme tune is met with jeers from some of the supporters.

The players are lining up alongside each other and the officials in the tunnel, exchanging fist bumps and stern expressions as wide-eyed mascots take in the majesty of their heroes.

Kepa will always be remembered as the goalkeeper who refused to come off.

In the 2019 League Cup final, he defied Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri’s orders to come off for Willy Caballero. Wembley was shocked.

Now here he is with Madrid, living his best life. He rebuilt his reputation at Chelsea, winning back his place, and this summer Madrid chose him as the lucky loan replacement for an injured Thibaut Courtois.

I imagine Carlo Ancelotti’s players would like to make their own manager eat his words!

It’s rare for the competition’s most storied team to not be favourites for the trophy. They just find a way to win it.

We get underway at 5.45pm.

Real Madrid enter tonight with a perfect record this campaign with five wins from five LaLiga outings.

The addition of Jude Bellingham behind a front two has proved revelatory. Often he’ll pop up in the box with a tap-in – as much as a midfield link, he’s been an excellent poacher for Madrid. They’re top of the table.

Union have kickstarted their campaign in modest fashion. A couple of wins and a couple of defeats puts them eighth in the Bundesliga. They’ve lost two in a row.

One of their two forwards tonight, Kevin Behrens, has bagged four goals in the league.

It’s also a funny moment for Lucas Tousart, the midfielder who they signed from rivals Hertha Berlin in the summer. Goodbye Hertha, hello Champions League.

Union are looking to build on a fourth-place finish in Germany’s top flight.

Grizzled midfield warhorse Toni Kroos doesn’t start tonight, but he’ll hope to bring dashes of quality off the bench – if only to get one over his brother!

It’s a tale of two cities and one Kroos family, as brother Felix Kroos is on the coaching staff for Union’s U19s.

Madrid or Union, white or red, old or young, the passion is at full pitch outside the Bernabeu.

The decibel levels are going to be ridiculous inside a veritable cauldron of a ground.

Doesn’t Carlo Ancelotti look as cool as always?

Even in the face of an avalanche, he would look unfazed. He’s won four Champions Leagues by now. He’s seen it all.

For Union Berlin fans, seeing their side in the Champions League must be surreal even considering their recent history. This is a club with fresh wounds.

Only as recent as 2004 did they nearly go bankrupt. Just over a decade ago they were slumming it out in the German fourth tier. Fans helped rebuild a stand with their own hands and gave their blood for the club. How on earth did they get here?

Dominic Hogan take a look. Read below.

And Union have announced their line-up to represent the club for the first time in this competition.

No surprises as defensive stalwart Leonardo Bonucci is in from the beginning for his debut, as is Robin Gosens, who played a part in Inter Milan’s defeat to Manchester City in the final in June.

Union tend to field a 3-5-2 or 3-4-2-1.

Carlo Ancelotti released his team sheet well in advance of kick-off and this is the line-up he will field to face Union Berlin.

Jude Bellingham starts, of course.

Such is the excitement around Jude Bellingham that pundits on TV and in pubs across the land are earmarking the young midfielder as a potential Ballon d’Or winner.

Having joined Los Blancos in the summer, he is set to start with them for the first time in the Champions League, having already made a mark on the tournament with Borussia Dortmund.

He’s already broken several records – youngest Englishman to score in the competition, youngest player to start ten games, most goals scored by a teenager (though he’s 20 now), and so on. You’d back him to dazzle in the Champions League for years to come.

Under a shining light, Union took in their new environment yesterday at a training session at the Santiago Bernabeu.

The iconic venue plays host to tonight’s clash.

There are some seasoned pros in this squad: Leonardo Bonucci, a nine-time Serie A winner, commands the defence. There’s also the likes of Kevin Volland in the attacking ranks, but more on them later.

Good afternoon and welcome to Mail Sport’s live blog as Real Madrid give Union Berlin a baptism of fire in the Champions League.

We’re set for an enthralling encounter as 14-time winners of the competition host starry-eyed debutants.

Don’t make the mistake of writing off Union, though. That’s a perilous road. The German outfit have been ripping up expectations for the last few years – and how they’d like to prove their doubters wrong tonight.

We’ll have all the build-up and action right here. Don’t go anywhere.