It was a great team effort from Real Madrid in their 3-1 win over Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League group stage match #2. Let’s take a closer look at the player ratings of all the Real players from the match.
Goalkeepers and Defenders
Keylor Navas – 7
The Costa Rican keeper was on point yet again tonight in Dortmund. He may have made only 3 saves the entire match, but the keeper had to handle the ball a lot in this match (as you can see in the above picture).
With Dortmund testing the Real Madrid defense so frequently, Navas was called into action having to either grab the ball on an attempted through ball or to steal the ball off the foot of an attacking player.
The best moment of the night from Navas came when he did this fancy little dribble move to shake off Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang pressing hard.
Nacho – 7.5
He’s a natural center back, but wow is Nacho Fernandez a fantastic depth player to have when an injury crops up. Deployed to left-back for this match, the Spanish international played exceptional in his unnatural position.
It isn’t a crazy ask for Nacho to play as a fullback as Zinedine Zidane has called on the fan favorite to be the man to plug any holes the team might have on defense.
Nacho made a couple clutch tackles and touches in the second half to help slam the door on a possible comeback from the home side. With both Theo and Marcelo out, Nacho was more than a suitable replacement in this match.
Sergio Ramos – 8
Captain Ramos had a very good match and didn’t see a yellow card! He and his center back partner, Raphael Varane, were incredible shutting down Aubameyang for the majority of the night, especially in the first half.
The Dortmund striker had several opportunities in the first half but Ramos gave no ground to the pacey player who had been a goal-scoring machine all year.
Sergio’s best moment of the match came early when he got back to block a shot off the goalline with Keylor Navas sprawling.
Sergio was clinical on defense locking down Auba, while also pushing forward on the attack a few times taking dribbles and helping set up attacks. He had a great chance to score just before halftime on a header, but barely missed it wide.
Raphael Varane – 8
Rafa Varane was a force to be reckoned with in this match. The French center back looks to be back to 100% health and form after missing two weeks with a leg injury and he came up huge a few times in this match.
Dortmund honestly should’ve tied the match on this chance just seconds into the second half and Varane was there to prevent the goal.
Like Ramos, Varane was dribbling forward with confidence, and was a brick wall in the middle of the Real Madrid defense shutting down the gaudy Dortmund attack. A great performance from Rafa.
Dani Carvajal – 9
In my opinion, the best defender on the field for either team in this match was Dani Carvajal. I had been dogging him recently with his inability to push forward on the attack like he has in the past. He must have heard my complaints as he was phenomenal all match going forward helping set up Gareth Bale for the first goal and busting through the Borussia Dortmund defense several times early on.
His assist to Bale was a thing of beauty, plus his constant movement forward and backward on the right wing helped to open up a lot of chances for Los Blancos.
Not only did he get an assist, he made a goal-saving tackle on Aubameyang late in the first half as the Gabonese striker found himself alone in the box but Dani was there to clear the ball out of play not allowing a shot.
When Real Madrid have fullbacks that play well, the whole team plays well. Today was a perfect example of that exactly.