Thibaut Courtois did not hold back his assessment of what went wrong for Real Madrid in their FIFA Club World Cup exit.
Los Blancos came into their Club World Cup clash with Paris Saint-Germain unbeaten under new boss Xabi Alonso. The Spanish giants looked reinvigorated in the United States, winning four of their five matches in the build-up to the semifinals, after a poor final campaign under Carlo Ancelotti.
What unfolded against PSG, though, was a performance reminiscent of the Ancelotti era. Real Madrid conceded three goals in the first 24 minutes of the match, looked out of sorts both in attack and defense and failed to find the back of the net in what wound up being a 4–0 defeat.
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After the match, Courtois spoke to the media about the shortcomings of the team in the lopsided result, highlighting the recurring issues that unfolded at MetLife Stadium.
“What was the problem? We didn’t press as a team. There were two big mistakes at the start of the game and that affected us,” Courtois revealed.
Defensive blunders from Raúl Asencio, who was filling in for the suspended Dean Huijsen, and Antonio Rüdiger gifted PSG their first two goals inside of nine minutes. The Parisians arguably should have scored more in the early stages, but Courtois stood tall to momentarily limit the damage.
Along with their lackadaisical defending, Real Madrid also failed to press. As soon as they went down by two goals, the La Liga runners-up allowed PSG to dominate possession and made no real effort to win the ball back. Kylian Mbappé and Vinícius Júnior, in particular, were all-but stationary without the ball and showed no interest in tracking back.
“We failed to follow Xabi [Alonso’s] plan for the game. We need to take time and analyze it, but from what I saw, we were always arriving late to every situation,” Courtois said.
Alonso has been insistent on instituting a strong, aggressive press from every player on the pitch at Real Madrid, but it was clear his team has yet to truly buy into his new system. As a result, PSG ran rampant at MetLife Stadium.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as ‘We Failed’—Thibaut Courtois Gives Blunt Reason for Real Madrid’s Brutal Club World Cup Defeat.
