Real Madrid: 5 most important players vs. PSG in the first leg of the Round of 16

CB Eder Militao

Another player who will need to have top performance. Eder Militao is one of those players who has improved so much, so quickly. It was the first season in over a decade where Real Madrid was without both Sergio Ramos and Raphael Varane.

While many expected a shaky defence, Eder Militao stepped up and took the responsibility of acting as a leader of the defence. Well, the Brazilian has shown his quality and has been worth his price tag of €50 million.

Eder Militao has had many great games and is the future of the club. He is a player who is not getting a lot of applause for his consistent performances and we all must appreciate how well he has played so far.

To be honest, Militao is a very important player, and he will have to be 100% spot-on in this game. He is a star, a 186 cm tall player with a lot of physical strength and the ability to steal the ball cleanly.

The Brazilian is somewhat clumsy and PSG will try their best to exploit his weakness with constant presses. But if the Brazilian can play with the responsibility, he can have a much better game.

Well, we need an in-form performance from Militao in this game. The statistics show how well Militao has played this season. His dominance in the air has allowed him to score a goal and win an average of 2.6 aerial duels a game. Not only this, the 24-year-old has been way too good in defending which is evident by his 1.8 interceptions, 1.7 tackles and 3 clearances a game.

Well, one thing that isn’t talked about enough is Militao’s ability to shoot from distance, or his long ball passes. The 3.4 long balls that he averages a game tells us a lot about how creative he can be and how Carlo Ancelotti has made the most of Militao’s this ability and thus prefers building from the back.

Eder Militao is fast enough to help Real Madrid contain Kylian Mbappe. Remember PSG vs Barcelona second leg? I was pretty impressed with Ronald Koeman’s strategy of keeping Mbappe quiet. The former Barcelona manager had a more aggressive approach to save his team by Mbappe’s attacking threat.

Initially, Koeman used Sergino Dest’s pace to keep up with Mbappe, and once Dest received a booking for a clumsy challenge on the Frenchman, Koeman substituted him with Oscar Mingueza, a player who is fast enough to try to keep up with Kylian and is strong enough to push him off the ball.

Eder Militao will have to put in a similar performance as in the last game against Villarreal, treating this game as a final and doing everything in his power to bother Thibaut Courtois the least.