“This is why you guys come to these games,” Vincent Kompany had said, and especially here. For the quality, the chaos and the goals, the edge, the drama and the history that invades every moment. Another wild Champions League night had this place believing in another crazy comeback, the noise level rising towards what appeared destined to be one, last thunderous crescendo as Real Madrid rose again and went for their biggest European rivals. In the end, though, Bayern Munich held on for a win that sets up another, definitive battle at the Allianz Arena next week.

Strikes from Luis Díaz and Harry Kane either side of half-time had given Bayern a 2-0 lead, underlining an incontestable authority in the opening hour. But a Kylian Mbappé goal 16 minutes from the end began a rebellion that could have left the tie on even more of a knife edge than it is, Madrid finding chances for a draw or even another victory. They also found Manuel Neuer rolling back the years, aged 40, with nine saves.

By the final whistle, Bayern might have felt like an opportunity to end it had slipped them by, yet they might also have felt relief. As for Kompany, he said he was “happy”. A 2-1 away win is a superb start, their first victory here in 24 years, but they know it is not the end, not yet. Madrid must seek their comeback in Munich and without the suspended Aurélien Tchouaméni. “It won’t be easy but if there’s any team that can do it, it’s Real Madrid,” Álvaro Arbeloa said.

“We could have scored more and they could have scored more,” Kompany said. There had been 39 shots and when the first goal came four minutes before the break, Bayern slicing their way through for Díaz to sweep home, the only surprise was that it had taken that long.

Kompany had insisted that he wanted his team to show no fear; he had also insisted that no team could stop another forever, and both of those scenarios were played out. Bayern had gone at Madrid from the start, embracing the risk.

Asked about the threat from Vinícius Júnior and Mbappé, Kompany had invited his enquirer to contemplate the threat posed by his players instead. Madrid had to, red shirts everywhere. The first shot came after 43 seconds and Konrad Laimer could have scored, just as Michael Olise could have from the second four minutes later. From the third Andriy Lunin tipped over a Joshua Kimmich shot from a corner. Harry Kane then cushioned a volley into Dayot Upamecano, who could not believe he didn’t get full contact from three yards, Álvaro Carreras somehow scrambling clear.

At this point Madrid could not get out, Bayern smothering them, but they would. And when they did that, danger followed. Neuer denied Mbappé and dived low to deny Vinícius. Bayern continued to press Madrid into mistakes and twice in a minute Serge Gnabry might have given them the lead. The first saw him fail to control inside the six-yard box; the second needed Lunin to stop him. But Madrid had awoken and Mbappé drew another superb save from Neuer.

Somehow it was still 0-0 but not for long. Pressed once more, Vinícius’s loose ball hit Olise and Madrid were turned; five seconds later, the ball was in the net. Gnabry and Kane set up Díaz dashing in unseen over Trent Alexander-Arnold’s shoulder to score. The first had taken a while, the second would not. The teams had only been back out 21 seconds when Carreras was dispossessed. Aleksandar Pavlovic and Olise combined to find Kane, who finished calmly amidst the chaos.

Madrid appeared to be at Bayern’s mercy now. And yet – and how many times have you heard ‘and yet’ with Madrid in Europe? – they should have scored when Alexander-Arnold’s punt and a slip from Upamecano sent Vinícius clean through. Neuer though held his nerve, forcing him wide, and the Brazilian hit the side-netting.

When Mbappé got free soon after, Jude Bellingham on as a sub and bursting through to find him as he would do often, Neuer made a fantastic stop. Emboldened by that, by the belief there was nothing to lose and an entire history behind them, Madrid went for it and Mbappé was soon in again, his shot bending just wide.

Then it happened, the Bernabéu erupting the way it does, that familiar feeling flooding back, a glimpse of another miracle. A brilliant ­delivery from Alexander-Arnold set up Mbappé to put the ball off the bar and over the line. The fuse was lit, the gap a single goal, and the momentum Madrid’s, alive. A quarter of an hour remained, an eternity here.

Vinícius went through, stopped by Neuer, who then saved from Éder Militão. Madrid couldn’t level it at one end, Bayern couldn’t end it at the other. The final, frantic minutes slipped away, Mbappé curling wide on 89 minutes, but this time that moment didn’t come, and so to Munich.