Real Madrid never cease to surprise me. Sometimes, in a good way, other times not so much. Real Madrid were shockingly defeated by Sheriff Tiraspol 2-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu. Look, I was expecting a tough game from Sheriff. But this was just a bit too much. Sheriff defended incredibly well, and even though Real Madrid created chances and were unlucky to not score the second, this was not a great performance, especially defensively.
You can argue that Real could’ve prevented at least one of the two goals, because there was some dreadful defending during the buildup of the first goal.
Long story short: This game was not fun. So, how well did our players do this time around?
GK Thibaut Courtois
I don’t have a lot to say about Courtois‘ performance. He had a few nervy moments with the ball, especially in the first half where he blindly passed the ball to the opponent, and had issues dealing with Sheriff’s high press, whenever that happened. He wasn’t at fault for the first goal, and he definitely wasn’t at fault for the second. The Belgian didn’t have a lot to do because Sheriff didn’t really create that many chances.
Rating: 5/10
RB Nacho Fernandez
I have no idea what to say about Nacho other than the fact that he is clearly showing us that he is not a natural full-back. The string of bad games for Nacho continues, this time on the right flank. Nacho didn’t have a lot to worry about defensively as Sheriff never really broke free, apart from that sequence during the first goal, where the cross field switch was played to Cristiano. The left-back had acres of space to time his cross to perfection, and it’s not like Nacho wasn’t there. Nacho didn’t close him down. Well, he didn’t even try!
That’s what worried me the most. As for the offense, Nacho frankly had no productivity in the offense, which proves my point even better. Whenever he goes high up the pitch to support the right winger, he either wastes the chance or makes the wrong decision. The Spaniard isn’t a good crosser of the ball either, so I don’t understand why he’s still being played there.
Rating: 3.5/10
CB Eder Militao
Not much to say about Militao. He didn’t do a lot of stuff wrong. He didn’t bring a lot to the table, either. He was just sort of… there. Had a few good interventions, as always, and did well to circulate the ball. That’s all, really.
Rating: 5/10
CB David Alaba
Alaba was responsible for the first goal. Yakhshiboev, he man he was supposed to be covering was so open when the ball was crossed into the box, and it was an easy header for him since Alaba wasn’t there to track him. Even if he was, the cross was too good and too high for Alaba to defend.
Other than that, he had a few decent passes and interventions, pretty much like Militao, he was just there. He was a little more involved and a little more noticeable in the offense just because of his tendencies to strive forward, but nothing good came out of it.
Rating: 4.5/10
Miguel Gutierrez
Miguel had a few good crosses into the box, as did a lot of other players in the team, but he struggled a little defensively in the first half. Sheriff didn’t trouble him much, but when they did, Miguel didn’t look comfortable at some points during the game. Other than that, as I mentioned, he was OK.
Rating: 5/10
CM/DM Casemiro
Another bad performance from Real Madrid’s very own, Carlos Casemiro. Picked up a careless booking to make things worse for Real, and on top of that, he had trouble defending Sheriff’s counters. But, since Real had the majority share of possession, that meant Casemiro would get more touches, which he did. But, as usual, there was nothing that he provided offensively for the team.
Rating: 4/10
CM Eduardo Camavinga
Camavinga had a pretty bad first half. It’s not like he was trying things, he definitely was. But at Real Madrid, you don’t always get points for trying something that may or may not work. You need to excel at it as well. Camavinga tried to make things work, but the execution wasn’t there. He also struggled a bit when he had the ball. He was better in the second half. The Frenchman was asked to switch to the left-back position for a good chunk of the game, and, yeah, we’ll talk about that in due time.
Rating: 5/10
CM/RM Fede Valverde
Fede had a decent performance. Was heavily involved during the last chunk of the game, and had quite a few crosses into the box. He did well defensively, and when he was bizarrely asked to play him as right back, he didn’t disappoint. He was decent, nothing fantastic, nothing bad.
Rating: 6/10
CF/Free Eden Hazard
Hazard had one of his best games in a Madrid shirt. His dribbling looked effortless, he created chances for his teammates, he moved around looking for spaces to pounce on, had a few decent shots on goal and in general had a fantastic Hazard game. No goals, no assists, but it looks like Eden Hazard’s getting back to his very best once again. Or, something close to it, at the very least.
Rating: 7.5/10
LW Vinicius Jr
Vinicius was, in some ways, back to his 2020-21 days. In the first half, he made some poor decision making and took some weird shots. Sometimes he would try to take on multiple players in situations he wouldn’t get anything out of, and because of that, there was just a lot of wasted potential on the left flank. However, the second half was better for Real Madrid’s prodigal son. He was able to win duels, tried to create chances and even won a penalty because of which Real had a goal to show. The Brazilian still made some bad decisions, but at least he brought something good to the table as well.
Rating 6.5/10
FW Karim Benzema
Karim Benzema scored again. It was a very well taken penalty. Benzema tried to make things happen for Real Madrid. He tried to circulate the ball but it didn’t quite work out due to Sheriff’s fantastic defensive plan. He didn’t get many clear cut chances in the box, but he did get the goal, which sparked hope among the fans over a potential comeback victory. Not the greatest performance from Benzema, but he didn’t have a terrible game, either.
Ranking: 7/10