5 reasons to believe in a Real Madrid ‘Remontada’ vs. Manchester City

David Alaba, Casemiro will surely be back

David Alaba not being at 100 percent clearly affected Real Madrid defensively. The No. 4 was a doubt heading into the game due to injury, and while he played, he was not at his best fitness-wise. It showed, as Alaba made a clumsy error that enabled Gabriel Jesus to score. You wonder if Alaba were fully healthy, if Real Madrid would have tied or even won this game.

We saw against PSG and Chelsea how many fires he put out with his reading of the game and willingness to put his body on the line. He is the most consistent, stable, and intelligent of the Real Madrid defenders – a two-time treble winner.

Alaba started but did not finish the game due to his injury, leaving the game for Nacho Fernandez.

An even bigger absence, though, was in midfield, and this absence affected Alaba himself. Casemiro is a player Madridistas often do not appreciate fully until he is missing, because his biggest assets are not as apparent as his biggest weakness, which is ball security.

Clearly, Casemiro offers more good than bad, as you can see with how the defensive structure crumbles into dust and Toni Kroos is left grasping at air defensively when the Brazilian is unable to play.

Case’s injury hurt Real Madrid most of all against the fluid Manchester City attack. His return could be the decisive edge Los Blancos need to turn a 4-3 defeat into a win that advances them to an unlikely Champions League Final. The same goes for Alaba’s return, of course.