PSG 1-0 Real Madrid: Player Ratings as Thibaut Courtois nearly saves the day for awful Real
Real Madrid were horrible in the first leg of the Champions League, and it was only by the excellence of the center backs and goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois that Los Blancos seemed headed to share the spoils. That is until, of course, the ever-present danger man Kylian Mbappe scored a great solo goal in stoppage time to lift the home side to a 1-0 victory.
Things won’t get easier for Los Merengues in leg two at the Santiago Bernabeu, as both Casemiro and Ferland Mendy will be suspended after picking up fifth yellow cards.
Here are the player ratings from another poor performance from Real Madrid, who had dropped points to Villarreal this past weekend in LaLiga.
GK Thibaut Courtois
Thibaut Courtois was one of the two best players on the pitch. Kylian Mbappe showed he is the world’s best outfield player, while Courtois made a few massive stops, including one on Lionel Messi from the penalty spot, to keep Real in the game. He very nearly gifted Los Blancos a point with another crucial performance. The way he elevates this team is so invaluable, and Madridistas continue to be indebted to the man between the sticks. A man who proved many of them so very wrong after they once wrote him off.
Rating: 9.5
LB Ferland Mendy
Ferland Mendy, though perhaps not as egregiously so as Karim Benzema, did not look 100 percent. Not even close. That said, Mendy did a fair enough job against Angel Di Maria. He wasn’t awful and was still a better option than Marcelo, even at far less than full strength, but Mendy cannot get a positive grade. He just didn’t offer enough going forward and was exposed a little more when he went up against Mbappe.
Rating: 5.0
CB David Alaba
David Alaba was one of only three players who truly excelled for Real Madrid and looked like they belonged on the pitch in the Champions League. He made a brilliant defensive play to block a shot from Mbappe and had a couple of interventions that helped stopped goals.
The Austrian star had a whopping four interceptions in total, and that is an accurate description of the work he did cerebrally and with his body to keep PSG out of the goal until the very end.
Rating: 8.0
CB Eder Militao
Another massive performance from Eder Militao, who was the best outfield player on the pitch in several ways. He looked better in the build-up play than the midfield, and he and Alaba did so much work defensively to frustrate PSG despite all the possession the home side had accrued.
This isn’t the first time Militao has been head and shoulders above more experienced players. The young Real Madrid center back led the team with four tackles and three blocked shots, proving that Los Blancos would have been blown off the pitch without him.
Rating: 8.5
RB Dani Carvajal
Dani Carvajal had a couple of nifty tackles, but, by and large, he was destroyed by Kylian Mbappe before taking an early night. The Spanish international just could not handle Mbappe’s explosiveness, but, worse yet, he was too undisciplined to play things smart, whereas his teammates Alaba and Militao had the right idea.
Offensively, Carvajal was a black hole. This was a poor performance from a player who is too important to Real Madrid to be able to flop like this on a big stage. Carvajal’s starting position for 2022-23 cannot be guaranteed if he continues to be this inconsistent.
Rating: 3.5