Real Madrid 1-3 Juventus: 5 Talking Points

Modified Apr 11, 2018 21:54 GMT

All rise and bow to the king

#3 Blaise Matuidi, Sami Khedira and Miralem Pjanic have a ball in midfield

Matuidi was immense in midfield for Juventus

Dominating a midfield trio of Casemiro, Luka Modric and Toni Kroos should rank among the most difficult jobs in Europe but Blaise Matuidi, Sami Khedira and Miralem Pjanic put their noses to the grindstone and pegged the Madrid midfield back to their backfoot and pasted their adversaries on the wall.

Their high-press was working wonders in midfield as Juventus kept recovering the ball and the midfield trio's ability on the ball made sure they transitioned from defence to attack in the blink of an eye.

Add Douglas Costa's creativity and pace to the mix and you have a team that can send a team of Real Madrid's stature to the kitchen in their own home.

If only Mehdi Benatia could keep his head in the dying embers of the game, this would be remembered for years to come as an inspiring, dominant midfield performance at the Bernabeu by a visiting team.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Amit Mishra