Real Madrid began their UEFA Champions League campaign of 2025-26 with a 2\u20131 win over Marseille at the Santiago Bernab\u00e9u. Timothy Weah opened the scoring for the visitors. Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 equalised from the penalty spot before adding another from 12 yards in the second half to secure Xabi Alonso\u2019s first European victory as Madrid manager. Dani Carvajal was sent off in the closing stages, yet Madrid held firm to claim all three points.<\/p>\n
Marseille players featured prominently in several categories. Pierre-Emile H\u00f8jbjerg completed 96.5% of his passes, attempted nine progressive passes, carried the ball forward seven times, and topped the match with eight ball recoveries. Facundo Medina had 88 touches and five recoveries, while Leonardo Balerdi added 92.2% pass completion and five recoveries of his own.<\/p>\n
Mason Greenwood created three key passes, made nine progressive carries, and recorded six ball recoveries. For Madrid, Carvajal completed 97.1% of his passes and all of his longballs, and \u00c1lvaro Carreras registered seven recoveries.<\/p>\n
Dean Huijsen delivered a complete performance in buildup and progression. He attempted 16 progressive passes, finished with 62 touches, and connected on 66.7% of his longballs. He also contributed defensively, making interventions across the back line. His xT gain of 0.995 was the second-highest of the match.<\/p>\n
Aur\u00e9lien Tchouam\u00e9ni anchored the midfield with both control and impact. He completed 91.2% of his passes, contributed 16 progressive passes, and carried the ball forward nine times. He added 66 touches, 13 of them in the final third, and recovered possession five times. His xT gain of 1.269 led all players on the pitch.<\/p>\n
Mbapp\u00e9 continued his fine form, now in the Champions League. He scored twice from the penalty spot. He led the match with 15 progressive carries, recorded 37 touches in the final third, had two successful take-ons, and completed 86.7% of his passes. His all-around attacking profile reflected his decisive role in the result.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Real Madrid began their UEFA Champions League campaign of 2025-26 with a 2\u20131 win over Marseille at the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":233733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[125442,221,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-233732","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-real-madrid-cf-champions-league","9":"tag-soccer","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115219480204009400","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}