Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has come out with a scathing attack on the team's performance and tactics following their elimination from the Champions League at the hands of Arsenal this evening.
Los Blancos were beaten home and away by the Gunners, who become the first team in Champions League history to win on their first two trips to the Bernabeu, after also doing so in 2006.
Bukayo Saka gave Arsenal the lead just after the hour mark, recovering from missing a first-half penalty, before Real capitalised on a William Saliba mistake to equalise through Vinicius Junior.
However, Carlo Ancelotti's side never looked like sparking a comeback, and they were beaten on the night when Gabriel Martinelli raced in behind to beat Courtois in stoppage time to record a 5-1 aggregate win.
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Courtois critical in post-match interview
Speaking to the press after the defeat, Courtois did not hold back when revealing how he felt about the performance, and the tactics they deployed.
Courtois began by critiquing their gameplan, saying: "Instead of putting in a lot of crosses, maybe we need to play some team football.
"We put in many crosses, but this year we don't have a pure striker like Joselu, a guy that can win those kinds of duels."
Real attempted 42 crosses across the 90 minutes, with only seven being successful, and that is the most they have attempted in a match since the 2018-19 season, while in the six matches where Los Blancos have attempted 25 or more crosses this season, they have lost five of them.
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Courtois encourages players to take responsibility
Courtois did not place all of the blame on their tactics though, as he was keen to stress that the players need to take responsibility for the exit.
"We need to start playing as a team, not as individuals. We need to start being honest with ourselves. We are a team, but sometimes I feel like we play too individually." Courtois admitted.
"When they double-team Vini or Kylian [Mbappe], sometimes it works out, but three, four times, it doesn't. If we want to win, we need to be better.
"With all the quality we have, maybe we're not playing at the level we should be playing at."
While criticising the tactics, Courtois did go on to publicly back his manager though, stating definitively: "We have no doubts about Ancelotti."
With reports strongly linking Ancelotti to the Brazil national team job though, it does appear that the Italian's second tenure at the Bernabeu is coming to an end, after missing out on Champions League glory, while lagging behind in the La Liga title race.
Andrew Delaney
