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.
Midfielders
Toni Kroos – 8.5
The former Bayern Munich player and German international returned to his home nation and of course, put on a show of pure excellence.
The midfield maestro distributed the ball like always with a 91% pass completion rate (67 of 74) and was helpful on defense. Kroos made two tackles in the match and was the man who took all six of Real Madrid’s corners finding players in the middle, but not getting an assist for his efforts.
Kroos missed the match at Alavés over the weekend due to an undisclosed injury, but the German doesn’t appear to have any lingering problems.
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Toni, much like Carvajal, is a good benchmark for how well Real Madrid are playing as a team. If Kroos is on, spraying balls with precision all over the field, the team will play great, if not, things aren’t good. At all.
Today was not one of those days.
Casemiro – 7.5
The central defensive midfielder was clinical as usual in this match. He led the team in tackles (6 tied with Nacho) and finished with a 93% completion rate.
Playing as a fifth defender or third center back, Casemiro didn’t get a chance to show off his attacking prowess more than once as he only got a chance to lead the breakout once all match.
While Casemiro was great defensively, it was expected he would play like this. Again, a through and through complete match from the Brazilian.
Luka Modric – 8.5
Maybe my favorite tweet of the season thus far came today when little Luka picked up a yellow card late in the first half for arguing with the referee.
did Modric just get a yellow for being a God amongst men
— Kiyan Sobhani (@KiyanSo) September 26, 2017
I’m still laughing at this even now six hours after the match. Modric was business as usual in Dortmund Tuesday night, playing great in a big match.
It was #10 who threaded the needle to Cristiano Ronaldo for the third goal and the goal that slammed the door on any possibility of a comeback for Dortmund.
He dominated the Dortmund midfielders dispossessing them three times. He is the little engine that can and he didn’t slow down even a little bit while playing all but the final three minutes. Another fantastic performance from the Croatian.
Isco – 8.5
Another fantastic performance came from Isco. Originally starting on the left wing flanking Ronaldo, the natural attacking midfielder dropped into his natural position and free roamed the entire match, causing Dortmund even more confusion at the back.
There were times when Isco helped to start the attack in the midfield playing behind Bale and Ronaldo, other times he was sprinting down the left wing after receiving a long pass and trying to cross the ball in.
Is there anything this guy can’t do? One of Isco’s best games thus far this season for sure.
Forwards
Gareth Bale – 9.5
Oh, Gareth you cheeky, cheeky man. What a game from the Welsh Dragon.
The best way to shut up the haters is play like Bale did today. In the first half alone, he created three chances to score and bagged an absolute bombing goal in the 18th minute to open the scoring.
His volley into the top corner of the goal was nothing short of trick shot as he one-touched the over the top pass from Dani past the goalkeeper Burgi leaving the Dortmund keeper rooted in his spot.
Bale wasn’t done there, as he made a great run down the left wing and picked out Cristiano in the middle of the box on a great cross across the ground which proved to be the game-winner. Bale wasn’t just doing things on the attack, he was key in clearing basically every corner Dortmund had. He was great on defense, great on offense and there wasn’t a moment in this match that I was mad at the forward.
A personal message from @GarethBale11 for all his haters 🐉🐉🐉 #RealMadrid #HalaMadrid pic.twitter.com/RsaPRVB7h1
— Leon Stavrinakis 🇺🇸 (@leonstav) September 26, 2017
Zidane spoke ravingly of Gareth in his post-game press conference and how could he not? Bale was near perfect in this match.
Cristiano Ronaldo – 9.5
In his 400th match with Real Madrid, what does CR7 go out and do? He bags a brace in the second half to lead his team to the win of course!
After a slow start to the league campaign, not scoring a goal in his first two matches of the year, Ronaldo has now scored four goals in two Champions League matches this season, and he has now scored 14 goals in his last 7 UCL matches.
He was very involved in the match getting lots of touches in the first half and helping to set up a couple good chances for Bale. He was able to get himself into position a couple times towards the end of the first half, cutting to the inside and taking some good shots, but his breakthrough didn’t come until the 49th minute on the Bale assist.
400 matches in a white jersey, 411 goals. There is just no stopping this god of football.
Substitutes
Marco Asensio – 6.5
I give Marco a lower rating because he should’ve scored the fourth goal in this match but got too excited and mishandled a breakaway opportunity.
As usual, the super sub Spaniard came in hungry for a goal despite his team leading when he entered the match for Isco in the 75th minute.
It always blows my mind how comfortable the 21-year-old looks when he comes on the field. He was attacking the Dortmund defense just like Isco was when he was in the match, and he was showing off the wheels he has as usual.
Lucas Vasquez – 6
Lucas has become a regular substitute for Gareth late in matches and once Bale started cramping up late, it was the depth player who came in as a replacement.
Vasquez didn’t make much of an impact on the match after coming in but he did a good job tracking back to help on defense. Nothing special from the Spanish player but a solid showing in not very many minutes of playing time.
Dani Ceballos – N/A
Ceballos came on for Luka Modric in stoppage time and only saw three minutes on the pitch.
He enjoyed his second appearance in the Champions League of his career in the few minutes he was on pressing the Dortmund attackers and trying to get involved in the game. He only made three passes and completed two of them.
Next: Real Madrid 3 – Borussia Dortmund 1: Quick take reaction