Thibaut Courtois dusted off his best Jurgen Klopp impression and claimed the Santiago Bernabeu pitch contributed to Real Madrid ’s below-par showing.
Los Blancos eventually ran out 2-0 winners over RB Leipzig in the Champions League, but flattered to deceive for much of a frustrating evening. The European champions have started the new season in perfect fashion, winning eight times in all competitions.
But their win over Leipzig was a laboured one, registering just three shots on target as they were forced to wait until the 80th minute to open the scoring. Fede Valverde eventually broke the deadlock, before Marco Asensio secured the three points in stoppage time.
But it was hardly a performance to set the pulses racing and Courtois attributed their struggles to the condition of the Bernabeu turf. "Leipzig are a good team and we struggled a lot today. The first half was not good, the state of the pitch does not help us to play our football,” he told Movistar+ via Sport.
“The boss changed things at the break, we did not create much danger but we put away the chances we did have. These matches are important to win and now by winning the double duel against Shakhtar you already qualify.”
Courtois’ excuse was similar to the one deployed by Klopp after Liverpool endured struggles of their own in the Premier League opener vs Fulham. Last season’s beaten Champions League finalists, failed to deliver on the opening day of the domestic season, drawing 2-2 with Fulham at Craven Cottage.
And Klopp went on to list the pitch as one of the reasons behind the indifferent performance. "A really bad game. How can that happen? The attitude was not right in the beginning. We tried to react after 15 minutes. The pitch was dry, stuff like this. Really difficult,” he told BT Sport.
That wasn’t the first time he had pointed the blame at the pitch either, doing the same following a defeat to Ajax in the Champions League back in 2020. “I really think the pitch was really tricky. It was like deep, muddy a little bit. Even if you can’t see it from outside, it was like this because both teams looked really exhausted pretty early.”
Pep Guardiola has also been known to look downwards rather than inwards when conducting a post-match autopsy, doing so against Crystal Palace last season. “We played to win the game, we created more, the stats were there,” he said after the 2-2 draw at Selhurst Park.
“The way we played was amazing in a difficult stadium with the grass not perfect, we were there all the time, we had a good game.”
As for Courtois, his claims were somewhat blacked up by Real director and legend Emilio Butrageuno, who suggested the pitch was not yet up to standard: “The grass has come from Extremadura and there the temperatures were very high. It [the grass] has struggled to acclimatise, but in the coming weeks it will improve,” he revealed.
Real bosses now have over two weeks to sort their issues out, with Osasusa the next to visit the Bernabeu after the international break.
