Real Madrid’s arrival in Leipzig for their Champions League last-16 tie caused chaos due to a strike at the airport forcing them to reschedule their trip to avoid a shutdown that would have disrupted their match schedule, Marca reported.

Instead of a direct flight to Leipzig, the team landed in Erfurt at 11:38am on Monday and had a bus journey of over 160 kilometres that nearly ended in tragedy as the bus carrying Carlo Ancelotti’s men was involved in a collision.

“On the A4 motorway between Eichelborn and Nohra, a white Toyota collided with the Madrid team bus. The driver of the car overlooked the bus while changing lanes and broke the outside rear-view mirror.

“The Toyota Avensis was damaged to the value of about 3,000 euros. The extent of the damage to the Real Madrid bus is still unclear. After a brief stop, fortunately, all those involved continued without incident,” German newspaper Bild reported.

Fortunately, from inside the Real Madrid bus, where the Real Madrid squad and technical staff were travelling, they did not feel the collision and were able to continue their journey without any problems.

“A fan who was filming the bus in his car lost control, lost his grip on the steering wheel and bounced off. We didn’t notice it. The people who came in buses behind us saw it,” the club told Marca.

At around 2:40pm, Real Madrid finally arrived at the team hotel, the Steigenberger, located in the centre of Leipzig.

There were clear scratches from the impact with the fan’s car on the driver’s side of the bus, at the height of the double axle.