{"id":57355,"date":"2025-07-11T17:02:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T17:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/57355\/"},"modified":"2025-07-11T17:02:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T17:02:09","slug":"three-questions-and-three-answers-from-real-madrid-0-4-paris-saint-germain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/57355\/","title":{"rendered":"Three questions and three answers from Real Madrid 0-4 Paris Saint-Germain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Real Madrid<\/a> crashed out of the FIFA Club World Cup at the semifinal stage in New Jersey as they fell to a humiliating 4-0 defeat which allowed former Betis midfielder Fabi\u00e1n Ruiz to score twice and ex-Barcelona winger Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 to get in on the action and make it 3-0 within 25 minutes. Gon\u00e7alo Ramos rubbed salt into the wounds with a fourth goal late on to end a disastrous afternoon for Los Blancos.<\/p>\n

Three answers<\/p>\n

1. Who would start in attack?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The debate here centred around whether Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 would come back in against his former side, having been left out of the starting line-up since returning from a bad case of food poisoning. The Frenchman was on the bench against Juventus<\/a> and Dortmund as youngster Gonzalo Garc\u00eda showed why Xabi Alonso was right to back him, taking his goal tally to four in five games before this semi-final. Here, Alonso gave in and recalled Mbapp\u00e9, but did so alongside both Garc\u00eda and Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior. It was a decision which he later described as being \u201cclearly\u201d the wrong one. In arguably the biggest challenge of Alonso\u2019s early reign, he must find a way to balance his two superstars in attack, neither of whom committed to the press nor who showed the work rate which has earned Garc\u00eda a place in the team.<\/p>\n

2. And who would replace Dean Huijsen in defence?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a big question to imagine how this game might have gone had Dean Huijsen been available to start in the back line, and not been sent off in injury time against Borussia Dortmund<\/a>. Ra\u00fal Asencio was pretty much the only option available to Xabi Alonso, who was also left without Trent Alexander-Arnold owing to injury. Two individual errors, from Asencio and from the usually-reliable Antonio R\u00fcdiger, cost the team this game within the first 10 minutes. What is increasingly clear is that Asencio, who has had a terrible tournament, is not up to standard to be first choice, and that Real Madrid cannot continue to rely on R\u00fcdiger as much as they have. Recently having undergone a knee operation and now aged 32, R\u00fcdiger\u2019s career is likely on the descent and this mistake, the first in some time, is an indication of that. Dean Huijsen is the start of the regeneration in defence, but more reinforcements are needed this summer.<\/p>\n

3. Would Tuesday night\u2019s storm delay play a factor?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Real Madrid\u2019s late arrival into New York, landing around five hours later than expected, threw a spanner in the works for the team\u2019s preparations, in addition to cancelling the pre-game press conferences. While weather conditions during this tournament have been a talking point throughout, Real Madrid should also reflect on their own planning. Paris Saint-Germain travelled to New York immediately after winning their quarter-final and had three days of training at their new base, whereas Los Blancos opted to stay at their home camp in Miami until the afternoon before the game. <\/p>\n

Three questions<\/p>\n

1. Could this result actually be \u201cgood\u201d for Real Madrid?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was perhaps a little surprising to hear coach Xabi Alonso say in his post-game press conference that \u201ctoday\u2019s results is good for us, as we know how far we still have to go to improve\u201d, but his explanation was clear as he said, \u201cwe\u2019re just starting out. We\u2019ve been in a competitive environment for three weeks without training, and now we need to know where we are, look at where we want to be, and prepare for it. We\u2019ll be back in four weeks\u201d. It\u2019s evident that the coach has learned things about his team and may have confirmed some concerns which need addressing. Missing out on this tournament is a hard blow to take, particularly after making such a clear gamble on success by bringing in Alonso, Huijsen and Trent Alexander-Arnold early, but it has given the coach a competitive setting in which he could test his players and ideas without it meaning a direct impact on 2025\/26.<\/p>\n

2. Was this down to individual errors?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There were clear tactical and systematic flaws within the Real Madrid set-up, but this game went beyond that in that the defeat came primarily from goals conceded due to poor individual errors. Mistakes like those of the first two goals are not something that any coach can account for, and are not the level of Real Madrid. Xabi Alonso must evaluate which players are good enough for this level, and more importantly, which are up to the demands of his system. R\u00fcdiger, so often the saviour, can be forgiven for his first mistake in a year, but the lack of pressing and defensive work rate from the stars at the other end of the field provides a much more concerning problem looking at 2025\/26 and beyond in the medium to long term.<\/p>\n

3. Who will step up with Luka Modri\u0107 having left the club?<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the accusations thrown at this team over the last 12 months has been a lack of leadership as the battle of the egos has risen. Luka Modri\u0107, as captain, has perhaps had a limited role, in part due to his more reserved style of leadership, vastly different to that of some former captains like Sergio Ramos, and also due to his limited involvement on the field which has made him a squad player at best for his final season. Sadly for Modri\u0107, after 597 games, his time at the club has come to an end in tragic circumstances. He leaves behind a gap in midfield and in leadership. Dani Carvajal will take over the armband but is another leader who looks likely to not have the benefit of being a regular starter following the arrival of Trent Alexander-Arnold. That means Xabi Alonso must look to the likes of Fede Valverde to step up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Real Madrid crashed out of the FIFA Club World Cup at the semifinal stage in New Jersey as…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":57356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[931,17713,1075,204,41968,5036,5035,3715,17712,8659,35551,221,62,4237,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-57355","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-and","9":"tag-answers","10":"tag-from","11":"tag-front-page","12":"tag-germain","13":"tag-madrid","14":"tag-managing","15":"tag-paris","16":"tag-questions","17":"tag-real","18":"tag-saint","19":"tag-soccer","20":"tag-sports","21":"tag-three","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114835681925875984","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57355","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=57355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}