Real Madrid turned their recent fortunes on their head with a thumping 6-1 victory over AS Monaco in the UEFA Champions League at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu on Tuesday night. Kylian Mbappé opened the scoring on just five minutes before doubling it in the first half-hour. In the second period, Franco Mastantuono, Vinícius Júnior and Jude Bellingham all got in on the act, alongside a Thilo Kehrer own goal, to make this a rasping victory to boost confidence at the club.
1. Would the Bernabéu repeat Saturday’s whistles, or come out cheering?
The atmosphere at the Bernabéu was best-described as subdued. The only player subjected to the whistles and boos was Vinícius Júnior, and even in that case, there appeared to be some who were whistling and booing other fans who were whistling his every touch. The early goal helped to settle any nerves and quickly got any dissenting fans back on side, with even the most vociferous of critics calming down and going quiet. At one point in the first half, Vinícius clumsily lost possession in his own half, sparking whistles and boos and a counter-reaction of applause for the Brazilian. In the second half, the Grade Fans sang his name, other sections of the stadium whistled. It’s clear that there is a fracture among the fanbase in terms of how to react to this situation, and the winger is taking the brunt of all of the anger and frustration. The concern lies in that it is clearly impacting his game. He looked to be shrinking in confidence and struggling more and more, making rash passing decisions, until the moment in which he broke through, dribbling past several players to fire a rocket into the top corner and celebrate with the full team. The whistlers were in the minority after that.
2. Could Real Madrid keep back-to-back clean sheets for the first time since October?
Given how defensively sound Real Madrid looked at the start of the season, it’s mind-blowing to think that Real Madrid have not kept consecutive clean sheets in 19 games as once again it went begging courtesy of a rare Thibaut Courtois error to play Dani Ceballos into trouble. This was not a simple night defensively for Real Madrid, despite the scoreline. Even before Jordan Teze made the most of a basic mistake, Monaco had rattled the crossbar as Teze fired a rocket from 25 yards, and forced Courtois into five saves. The French side actually almost matched Real Madrid for total shots until the final minutes, with an end total of 24 for the hosts and 20 for the visitors, but which were level until the 80th minute. Even in spite of the scoreline and perceived dominance, Monaco still generated 1.55 xG against a Real Madrid defence which was forced to adapt to the precautionary withdrawal of Raúl Asencio at half-time.
3. Would Ansu Fati come to haunt his former nemesis?
There was a time when a teenage Ansu Fati was every Madridista’s worst nightmare. Becoming the youngest player ever to score in a Clásico at Camp Nou, his career has not panned out quite as he might have hoped at that moment as Barcelona’s young prodigy. On loan at Monaco, this was his first ever start at the Bernabéu, despite it being his 11th appearance against Los Blancos. He would head off after 61 minutes having missed Monaco’s best chance of the game, a shot from eight yards out right in front of goal on 19 minutes which registered 0.3 xG. Beyond that, his involvement was limited, tracked closely by Aurélien Tchaoumeni and allowed little space to run at the Real Madrid backline. Still only 23, Fati is not quite at the level that many Culés may have hoped he would reach.
1. Was this young XI an indication of Álvaro Arbeloa’s plans?
With an average age of 24 years and 152 days, Real Madrid put out their youngest starting line-up since a December 2018 tie against CSKA Moscow, when the side was 52 days younger. While Arbeloa didn’t turn to any Castilla players in the line-up, he did select a raft of the squads younger players, like Franco Mastantuono (who became the third youngest Real Madrid goalscorer in the Champions League after Endrick and Raúl), Raúl Asencio, Arda Güler and Dean Huijsen, while many were chosen out of obligation with little depth available due to injuries. The only player over the age of 27 was 33-year-old goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois. Arbeloa has shown that he is not afraid to gamble in this sense, fielding less experienced players and giving them a shot. But it also points to another cause, which is the lack of depth available at the moment. Of those on the bench, Dani Carvajal and David Alaba were the only two experienced figures, both injury-hit of late, and Dani Ceballos, Fran García and Andriy Lunin are the only other players with more than a single season at first team level, all three as regular back-up options.
2. What does Eduardo Camavinga at left-back for Fran García?
There were few surprises when the line-up was named, but one was the presence of Eduardo Camavinga at left-back. Álvaro Carreras’ suspension meant a change would be required, but Arbeloa opted for the French midfielder in the role ahead of a natural alternative in Fran García. The choice was intriguing, with Camavinga effectively stepping into midfield in a more central role in possession at times, giving the team more tactical flexibility. Arbeloa showed that he would mix things up, and Camavinga’s role did just that as it saw a combination of a back three, with Tchouameni dropping deeper, and a back four, looking to exploit the opportunity to break forward in greater numbers. With Carreras back this weekend, albeit with Tchouameni unavailable, it will be intriguing to see if there are more examples of Arbeloa operating with this system.
3. How important could this win be?
The atmosphere at the Bernabéu has been tense, but it’s been some time since Real Madrid ran riot like this. Even when it has happened, like the comfortable win in Bilbao, it wasn’t in front of Real Madrid’s own fans, or on an occasion as big as the Champions League. With this win, following the strong character shown on the field and pre-match in Kylian Mbappé‘s press conference, it feels as though there has been a change in the air. While the whistles and boos were there at the start, there was no sign of that come the end. Fans were back on the edge of their seats. There were still signs of nerves and discontent as Monaco came back into the game with their consolation goal, but the confidence around the stadium was more akin to that of previous seasons than that of recent weeks. By the time Jude Bellingham celebrated as if drinking, there was an atmosphere in which the Englishman could make light of the recent criticism. This was a clear step in the right direction for Real Madrid.
