Real Madrid: Five takeaways from a 1-1 draw with Chelsea

Marcelo was embarrassingly bad

Marcelo had a woeful performance against Getafe, and he was arguably worse against Chelsea. I mean, he looked worse, because he was going up against a much better side, and even though he should have been protected as a wing back, he still “distinguished” himself as a massive defensive liability. Even at the half, reporter Guillem Balague remarked that Los Blancos’ sideline instructed Marcelo to stop doing “whatever he was doing”.

Every time I watch him play, I don’t even see him on the screen, within the field of vision, on many attacks. In this game, Chelsea had a few dangerous spells of possession in the Real Madrid box, and Marcelo was nowhere near the penalty area.

He jogs back in defense. His attacking is ineffective aside from the occasional cross, though, thankfully, he had one decent one that led to Benzema’s goal three headers later. I bring up his attacking, because as a wing back, he was supposed to make up for his poor defending with excellent attacking. He did not do that.

Marcelo can’t start in the second leg. Ferland Mendy’s return is imperative to Real Madrid advancing to the Champions League Final, because Marcelo is such a huge liability that any decent side can exploit him. He is a shell of his former self, sadly.

Eder Militao was the only defender to show up

The Real Madrid defense is supposed to be the strength of the team, and even without Sergio Ramos, you’d thought they’d be strong at the back with Dani Carvajal and Raphael Varane back in the lineup. Plus, Nacho Fernandez has been great in Ramos’ absence this season.

Unfortunately, Nacho, Varane, and Carvajal were all poor. Carvajal was a non-factor in this game and subbed in the second half. Varane looked like he would make a decisive error at any moment. And Nacho spent more time hopelessly flailing at Chelsea players than making composed tackles.

But it was the young man who held everything together. We need to give Eder Militao all the praise in the world, he was one of THE standout players in yet another match, just as he was in the recent draws with Getafe and Real Betis.

According to WhoScored.com, Militao led the way with seven tackles, three interceptions, four clearances, and one blocked shot close to the six-yard box on Timo Werner.

Without Militao, Real would be at a serious disadvantage going into the second leg at Stamford Bridge. The 23-year-old may be known as a world-class center back in the near future. He has the full trust of Madridistas now.