DBasia.news – RB Leipzig inflicted their first defeat for Real Madrid in the 2022-2023 Champions League. These results disappointed Thibaut Courtois.
In the match that took place at the Red Bull Arena, Wednesday (26/10), Madrid appeared without a number of key players. Leipzig were able to maximize this condition until they managed to win 3-2.
Madrid’s goal has conceded twice when the game was 20 minutes. Josko Gvardiol and Christopher Nkunku defeated Courtois from close range.
Madrid had tried to get ahead after Vinicius Junior’s header in the 44th minute reduced the situation to 1-2. The score lasted until the break.
In the second half, Madrid tried hard to equalize. But it was Leipzig who were able to keep the advantage away through Timo Werner’s action when nine minutes of normal time remained.
Rodrygo’s consolation goal in injury time meant nothing in the end. Madrid still failed to steal points from the headquarters of Leipzig.
Conceding two quick goals seemed to have infurated Courtois. He did not hesitate to say that Madrid performed poorly in this match.
“We fell asleep on the pitch, without intensity or aggressiveness. We missed a lot of passes, control and it wasn’t a good game,” Courtois said after the game.
The decline in Madrid’s performance was quite reasonable due to the absence of Luka Modric, Karim Benzema, and Federico Valverde. These three players are now the souls of Los Blancos’ game.
Madrid coach, Carlo Ancelotti had tried to anticipate the absence of these three players. But this time the experiment showed no result.
Courtois refused to blame the coach’s tactics. Instead, he highlighted the role of the back-up players who were given the opportunity to appear from the start.
“As a goalkeeper, I noticed we lost a lot of duels due to lack of intensity. If you can’t do more, there are other players on the bench,” he added.
“The Leipzig players were quicker on the counter-attack. If we had been more precise we could have entered the game but that didn’t happen.”
Courtois did not mention names. But his comments could create a spark of conflict in the locke room.