It's safe to say the two leg performance against Manchester City were some of the most complete team performances from Real Madrid this season. Every player did their part both offensively and defensively to help Los Blancos get over the line against Pep Guardiola's men. Fede Valverde and Vinicius Jr will grab all the headlines for the performances across the two legs but there is one player, who didn't get on the stat sheet, who played a big part in Real's progress.
Brahim DĂaz's performance, especially in the second leg against Manchester City has quietly gone under the radar despite playing a huge part in the victory across the two legs. In the second leg Brahim recorded two key passes , created one big chance, and won two of his eight ground duels. A solid performance for a player who hasn't seen much game time this season, and it was the perfect time to have such a performance.
A superb showing
Brahim has only featured in a handful of games so far this season, but with all the injuries in the attack, the Moroccan was thrown into the fire in one of the most important games of the season, and he showed why he deserves more game time going forward. Arbeloa was full of praise for the attacker following the Manchester City game saying:
"Brahim has been AMAZING.Alvaro Arbeloa
It's not easy to replace Mbappé, but he did an amazing job.
Defensively, offensively, he did everything we asked from him"
As Arbeloa said replacing a player like Mbappe is nearly impossible, but Brahim did as good as anyone could have without getting on the scoresheet. The most important aspect that Brahim added was the willingness to to the defensive work that Vinicius and Mbappe don't tend to do, which added another layer to the team, helping to shut down this Manchester City team.
Brahim has largely been overshadowed by Vinicius and Mbappe this season, but when given his moment he capitalizes on his minutes. With Mbappe just starting to come back into the team and with the long-term injury to Rodrygo and drop in form of Mastantuono, Brahim could see more game time going forward and he could return to his super sub role we saw him find loads of success with during the 23/24 season.