Player ratings from Real Madrid’s 3-2 win against Borussia Dortmund

Real Madrid closed out the group stage of the Champions League with a hard fought 3-2 win over struggling Borussia Dortmund Wednesday. Here are the player ratings for every Real Madrid player that featured in the match.

Goalkeeper and Defenders

Keylor Navas: 6/10 – Dortmund mustered 9 total shots, 3 on target, and scored 2 goals. So to say this match wasn’t one to remember for Keylor is an understatement. The Costa Rican keeper has been a bit sluggish since returning from his injury late last month, and needs to get back to form soon.

Nacho: 7/10 – Nacho was rather quiet through the match as he played as a right-back for the first 38 minutes of the match before being moved to center back alongside Sergio Ramos after Raphael Varane was forced off with a leg injury. Nacho made three tackles over the course of the match and was accurate with his passes.

Raphael Varane: N/A – I won’t give Rafa a rating for this match as he was forced off with an injury just 38 minutes in. While he was on the field, Real Madrid scored two goals and allowed zero so I would say he did a pretty good job when he was on. Let’s hope this injury is nothing serious.

Sergio Ramos: 6.5/10 – I was rather unimpressed with Sergio’s performance in this match as he was unable to stop Aubameyang from scoring twice. The first goal is not his fault, but the second one was. He should have cleared the ball when he had the chance and should have kept a better position in the middle with his team leading in the first half. It is a good thing he didn’t pick up another red card in this match, however.

Theo Hernandez: 8/10 – The young left-back, Theo, looked very good in the second half once he understood how to slow down Christian Pulisic on the wing. After the second Dortmund goal, Theo stuck to his fullback position, but he was also very crucial on the attack, assisting on the game winning goal by Lucas Vasquez.

Lucas Vasquez: 9/10 – You may be a little confused as to why I list Vasquez as a defender. If you watched the end of the first half on, Vasquez was charged with playing right-back, a position he has played in the past. Much like Theo on the left, following the second goal from the visitors, Lucas was primarily tasked with going forward on the attack and he managed to score the game winner on a nifty curling shot. This is a big deal for Zinedine Zidane now that he knows he can play Lucas at right-back more if needed in the future.

Midfielders

Isco: 7.5/10 – The crafty Spanish midfielder was doing his thing again against Dortmund free roaming the midfield and linking up the forwards and the defenders nicely. The only knock on Isco’s performance was his missing Ronaldo on a couple of crosses that he normally hits. The ‘bandy-legged bandit’ did get credit for assisting on Borja Mayoral’s opening goal, but it was an accidental touch.

Casemiro: 7/10 – The central defensive midfielder wasn’t amazing in this match as he struggled to handle the pace of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Casemiro made a bad pass leading to the German side’s first goal of the match and completed 71 of his 78 passes over he course of the match.

Mateo Kovacic: 7/10 – With Toni Kroos given the night off, Mateo played well in his place making 89 touches (fifth most on the team) and completing 94% of his passes. Kovacic nearly scored a great goal near the end of the first half and looked threatening as usual when dribbling. It looks like the Croatian international is back to 100%.

Forwards

Cristiano Ronaldo: 9/10 – Since he broke yet another Champions League record, scored an amazing goal, and will receive the Ballon d’Or Thursday, I am going to give Cristiano a good rating. If you didn’t see his goal, you need to go watch it. It was truly incredible. Dare I say it was a vintage Ronaldo goal?

Borja Mayoral: 8/10 – After scoring the first goal of the game, and his first career Champions League goal, Borja was relatively quiet for the remainder of the match. Borja had just 22 touches the entire match.

Substitutes

Dani Ceballos: 7.5/10 – Many fans have been calling for Dani to get more playing time and their shouts were answered in this match. Ceballos played 32 minutes after replacing Mateo Kovacic in the 58th minute and he was fantastic I thought. His pace tracking back on defense was crucial and his hold-up play and passing in the final third were expert. This performance should earn Mateo more playing time in the future.

Marco Asensio: 7/10 – I was a little underwhelmed with Marco’s performance in this game. Not to say he didn’t play well, but we have become so spoiled watching this kid score incredible goals and helping in thrilling comebacks, this wasn’t the most memorable game. He did his part on the right wing helping on the attack but he only managed two shots and neither of them were close to going in.

Marcos Llorente: 6.5/10 – Another player Real Madrid need to play more regularly is Marcos Llorente. He came on for Isco in the 69th minute and showed off his pin-point passing and help on the defensive end. A good outing for Marcos albeit short.

Next: Three Takeaways from Real Madrid’s 3-2 win against Borussia Dortmund

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