Real Madrid: 3 Man of the Match candidates at Levante

Real Madrid GK Thibaut Courtois

The Man of the Match for Real Madrid against Real Valladolid, Thibaut Courtois came up with a trio of saves to deny the visitors an equalizer. There have been so many times this season when Courtois has kept Los Blancos in a match.

Take the Real Betis win as an example. Betis could have been up by more than 2-1 if it weren’t for Courtois making some stunning saves.

Courtois has seemingly come up with the goods every week, as he had a highlight-reel save to deny Alexander Isak in the 0-0 opener. Isak had a breakaway goal on his hands, but Courtois charged him and made the stop with his legs.

The best goalkeeper in La Liga last season, Courtois has picked up where he left off to begin the 2020-2021 season. Levante striker Jose Luis Morales has been known to score wondergoals, especially against Los Merengues, so Courtois will want to make sure he’s equal to whatever Morales and striker partner Roger Marti throw at him.

So far this season, Courtois has averaged 0.67 goals per 90 minutes with an 81.8 save percentage, according to FBRef.com. Those are highly impressive numbers. It’s too early to make statistical comparisons that are more “serious” than “fun”, but I’d like to point out that his save percentage so far this season is even higher than his clip in 2019-2020.