Real Madrid are always good when it comes to champions League however that those not mean if they don't perform well they will win the champions League, those times real Madrid have carried the champions League was because they where inform if they are not inform this season it will be difficult and impossible for them to lift the title especially now that that we have teams like Barcelona and Liverpool that are playing very well, Barcelona and Liverpool to me has greater chance of lifting the champions League title this season because they are very much inform than real Madrid.
I really don't know what is happening to real Madrid team they are suppose to be playing very well now because they have very good players, I know Mbappe was finding it very hard to adapt with the team but he has done that so they are supposed to play very well, they won there match yesterday and is a very good one however they still need to improve more if they want to lift the champions League title, real Madrid are conceding goals this time around they need to work on there defense very well and also work more on there attack.
The current team of Real Madrid is quite strong but most of the important players of this current team are suffering from injuries mainly because of this problem, the team performance is a little bad at times. You said that Real Madrid is a strong team but a strong team does not mean that they will win the Champions League title. I must agree with you because we have seen many big teams perform well till the finals or semi finals but they lose in important matches. But there is a difference between a good team and a consistently performing team.
Real Madrid is a team that can perform consistently and in the matches that matter to them, they perform much better than expected. If expectations aren't high for Real Madrid this season, expectations won't be high for any other team.