Three takeaways as Real Madrid bow out of the Champions League
By Ben Sundock
Real Madrid was not able to overcome the 2-1 defeat suffered 162 days ago in the second leg of the Champions League and lost 2-1 once again Friday night. Here are the three takeaways from the match.
The two mistakes from Raphael Varane in the Champions League round of 16 tonight against Manchester City will go down in infamy. In the ninth minute and the 68th minute, Varane committed costly turnovers that resulted in City goals.
Real Madrid needed to get a least two goals to stay in the round but could only manage one by way of Karim Benzema in the 28th minute on an expert header.
Here are the three takeaways from the frustrating defeat.
Unfortunate mistakes at the worst possible time
Raphael Varane has been a figurehead of the Real Madrid defensive line for years now. He has always been a consistent player who seems to never make mistakes. Today, he made two devastating mistakes that led to a goal from Raheem Sterling and and a goal from Gabriel Jesus.
Quite simply, Varane looked tense and lost with Sergio Ramos suspended for the all-important clash. Varane’s two worst matches of the season came in the two group stage meetings with Paris Saint-Germain.
Varane received a 5.59 in the 3-0 away loss and a 5.88 in the 2-2 draw in the Santiago Bernabeu. Here again in the Etihad Stadium tonight, Varane was not up to the task in the UCL. While Eder Militao was solid filling in for Ramos, his partner looked unnerved throughout.
Courtois did make a few of his usual brilliant saves in this game, but you simply can’t expect the lanky Belgian to stop those one-on-one chances against such a quality City attack.
Varane is an elite defender and he just wasn’t anywhere near his best tonight. All the blame should not fall on him either. Casemiro looked out of place many times and gave the ball away in several compromising spots on the pitch.