Shortly before half-time in one of the most thrilling European ties in recent memory, Real Madrid’s David Alaba strode angrily towards Casemiro and clapped his hands towards the Brazilian’s face. The gesture was accompanied by a forceful scream and a fierce stare, all of which served as a clear order: wake up and address the problem in front of your eyes. 

There were no prizes for guessing which problem Alaba was referencing. Casemiro had spent the first half chasing one player around the Santiago Bernabeu, and he had shown himself to have little idea of what to do about it. The issue for the Spanish side was Mason Mount, whose invention and intelligence had unexpectedly swung this game in Chelsea’s favour, and for Real it was set to get worse before it eventually, spectacularly, got better. 

As they dropped to the turf at the final whistle, drained by it all, the overriding sense was that Chelsea’s players deserved so much more than defeat here. For no player was this more true than for Mount, who scored one goal and created another — on top of everything else — in a statement performance at one of football’s most intimidating arenas. 

Once he had worked his way back onto his feet after extra time, Mount was grabbed on the pitch by Luka Modric. The midfielders exchanged an embrace and a few words, and it felt like a fitting image of two players who had defined this match: Mount embodied Chelsea’s stirring fightback, while it was Modric who snatched the momentum back for Real.

How strange it is to recall those days, early on in Mount’s career, when some observers questioned whether he would ever be good enough to play regularly in the Premier League, let alone on European stages as storied as this.

Those doubts have long since passed, thanks in large part to the Champions League medal hanging around Mount’s neck at the end of last season, and the debate has since shifted. Even the most casual fans know that Mount is one of the country’s leading players, and after Tuesday’s showing in Spain it seems that different questions should now be asked: how far can he go? Just how good could he be?

In terms of his individual standing, this was a night that might catapult Mount towards new heights, despite the defeat. Far more than an efficient cog in a slick Chelsea team, the 23-year-old was instead the pivotal player in Thomas Tuchel’s masterplan. On and off the ball, it all stemmed from Mount in the first 80 minutes of this match, until Modric produced one moment — one pass that had to be seen to be believed — that changed the course of the night. 

Mount is certainly not a player who can be easily defined by statistics, given his appreciation of space and the intricacies of a match, but his individual numbers are becoming increasingly hard to ignore. Since the start of last season, he is one of only two Englishmen (along with Harry Kane) at a Premier League club to both score and assist more than 20 goals.