For the last two seasons, Real Madrid have been tough to watch at times. Huge losses to big teams on big nights, El Clasico embarrassments, numerous Bernabeu upsets against ‘smaller’ teams — Real Madrid, by the standards of their own storied history, have largely been disappointing when it has mattered the most. However, in one or two of those games, the glimpses of old simmered through the gaps. Real Madrid looked alive against Barcelona in October. They beat Manchester City at the Bernabeu in February
last year.
Just for one or two, maybe three games, the monster that used to haunt every team in their Champions League nightmares woke up, to give its spoilt fans a reason to believe. On Wednesday night, for 90 minutes, the monster remained awake, and gave the 76,066 fans present at the Bernabeu — as well as millions watching around the globe — that feeling of old that every fan had grown accustomed to.
Here are three observations from Real Madrid’s win over Manchester City:
Reborn
“Fede Valverde is the Juanito of the 21st century. Everything a Real Madrid player should be is Valverde,” said Alvaro Arbeloa after watching the Uruguayan superstar score his first career hat-trick in a game that essentially took a lot of pressure off the manager after the recent slump. Fede scored three brilliant goals in 22 minutes, and each one of them had a trait that always goes unnoticed when people talk about him.
His first goal had the stride which took him far away from Nico O’Reilly and a lot closer to the ball than Gianluigi Donnarumma ever was. His second showed his off-ball movement and weak-foot, poacher-like finishing inside the box. And his third was his “I’m here” moment. The flick over Marc Guehi was clean, and the volley that followed it, majestic. After the amount of criticism that Valverde has heard and read over the course of the season, it was the perfect game to pull this one out of his underrated bag of tricks.
It is worth noting, though, that even if you completely disregard the hat-trick, forget it happened, or assume that someone else scored it, even then Valverde was among Real Madrid’s best players.
Four tackles. One interception. Four clearances. Four dribbles. Two key passes. 11 duels won. Consistently going on the defensive end and helping Trent Alexander-Arnold in his battle with Jeremy Doku, before quickly rushing to the midfield to press Bernardo Silva or Rodri. Pinning Nico O’Reilly to the left-back spot so that he is not able to overcrowd the midfield and make it a numerical advantage for Pep Guardiola’s side. This is the stuff that box-to-box midfielders of Fede’s make dream of. If you add a hat-trick on top of that, it becomes an all-timer of a performance.
There are hardly any performances in the modern Champions League era that touch this with a ten-foot pole.
Alvaro Arbeloa’s perfect plan
Real Madrid, for the first time since the Clasico win over Barcelona in October, looked to have a set, successful gameplan against a big team. It has not happened often, certainly not in the last two years for this club, but things looked almost perfect. Their defensive structure — a mid-block with two lines of four coached to perfection by Arbeloa, worked really well to limit any danger that Manchester City tried to create on the night.
The players looked for pressing triggers all game to try and take the game to Manchester City, in a similar way to what they did against Barcelona under Arbeloa’s predecessor. They won so many second balls, it was hard to keep count.
The players Arbeloa went for in defense all had great games — Trent looked good in the first big defensive test of his Real Madrid career, despite some problems caused by Doku over the course of the game. Antonio Rudiger and Dean Huijsen, especially the latter, had near-perfect games on the defensive end. Ferland Mendy, who unfortunately had to be subbed off at half-time due to an injury, was a brick wall on that side (was dribbled past zero times in the half), defending really well to neutralise any problems that Manchester City’s wingers would have caused.
Huijsen’s passing, too, was finally back to its best — 93.6% accuracy on 40 passes. Many of them were, as usual, high-risk passes, but Huijsen was able to channel his best for the biggest game of Real Madrid’s season so far. It was sorely needed, especially after months of inconsistent mediocricy from the former Bournemouth international, and the player finally looked similar to what fans got accustomed to during his first few months in Spain.
Manchester City created just 0.59 xG on the night (against Real Madrid’s 2.63), per FotMob, and Los Blancos’ defense had a lot to do with keeping those numbers down.
A star is born
Thiago Pitarch has started the last three Real Madrid games. Thiago has also played in five of their last six games. He has come off the pitch at times when Dani Ceballos was available, and he has started in games when Eduardo Camavinga was still in the squad.
Here’s the fun part: there hasn’t been an appearance where he has not looked good. In each appearance, Thiago was put in a different game state. The two matches against Benfica were about game-management. Thiago was asked to move around, ask for the ball and when he got it, he had to keep it. The game against Getafe, Thiago was sent out on the right flank to help Trent and keep the width on the team. It was an odd role for him, but he looked tidy anyway. Against Celta, it was the same, but on the left. As the game went on, his influence increased, and when he was taken off, he had given his all.
On Wednesday night, Thiago started in the heart of midfield alongside Aurelien Tchouameni (who was, once again, monstrous). Thiago was involved more than he had been in previous games. His teammates were finally trusting him with the ball and looking for him at many opportunities. He was there. He was moving around as an option to be open, and he was circulating the ball really well, too.
This is against an elite team like Manchester City, in his first start in the Champions League. Many players crumble under this sort of pressure. But Thiago? This is his bread and butter. The personality he has shown in his five appearances has been immense. That is exactly what Real Madrid have needed — someone energetic who is not afraid of asking for the ball and keeping it in tough moments.
There will be growing pains. There will be mistakes — there was one in the match against City, which almost resulted in a crucial goal for the away side — but Thiago is the sort of player who would learn from it and come back stronger. This is nowhere near the best he has shown for Castilla in the past, and once he gets to that level — and stays there consistently — Real Madrid fans will like him even more.
