Incredible comeback rescues Real Madrid in Champions League opener

They say the group stage of the Champions League has become predictable and boring.

And for the most part it has. On the first match day, spread across Tuesday and Wednesday, it was all quite predictable. Barcelona hammered Celtic 7-0; Bayern Munich smashed FC Rostov 5-0; Borussia Dortmund spanked Legia Warszawa 6-0; Atletico Madrid won 1-0, against PSV; and Arsenal disappointed, getting largely outplayed in a 1-1 tie at Paris Saint-Germain.

Even Manchester City’s 4-0 vanquishing of Borussia Moenchengladbach and Leicester City’s 3-0 debut win by the same score over Club Brugge felt like it had been foretold. Because the wealth of the Premier League clubs is hard for all but the giants from other countries to overcome.

But just when you were ready to check out of the group stage after a single round of games, something unexpected happened. Almost.

Sporting Lisbon very nearly upset the defending champions Real Madrid – who also lifted this tournament in 2014 – at the Bernabeu. They came close. But an 89th-minute Cristiano Ronaldo free kick and a 94th-minute Alvaro Morata winner restored the natural order and brought the 11-time champions a 2-1 win.

The Portuguese showed up in Madrid with a coherent and unintimidated team, attacking quickly and energetically on the counter-attacks emanating from its sturdy defense.

Ronaldo, in just his second start of the season, and still slowed somewhat by the injury that knocked him out of the Euro final in early July, looked off the pace early against his childhood club. Only a pair of long shots threatened Rui Patricio’s goal.

But just after half-time, Sporting took a not undeserved lead. Bryan Ruiz’s through ball to Bruno Cesar pinged from Sergio Ramos’s foot onto Luka Modric’s and into the path of the Brazilian, who coolly twirled his finish around the goalkeeper.

Ronaldo had a penalty shout in the 55^th minute, but Sebastian Coates was adjudged to have tackled him cleanly, albeit from behind and with two legs. But as his side got no closer to an equalizer, Zinedine Zidane made drastic changes, pulling off Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema for Morata and Lucas Vazquez.

Morata soon came within a hair of connecting with a diving header. Casemiro nodded a header from a bouncing ball onto the roof of goal. And Dani Carvajal volleyed just wide. The tide had plainly turned by then, and in the 83rd minute Ronaldo hit the post when a ball deflected to him off a defender, keeping him onside.

Finally, he curled in a free kick and refused, for once, to celebrate elaborately, having come up through Sporting’s youth academy.

Sporting had not yet quite recovered from that blow when James Rodriguez charged up the left and deposited a cross right onto Morata’s head, whose hard finish beat Rui Patricio again.

The team that was supposed to win won in the end. But it was close, giving Sporting and all manner of other second-rate clubs belief as they face the tournament’s giants. And perhaps it will restore our sense that the group stage is worth bothering with.

Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.