haaland kit junior Madrid saw more of the ball and had more shots on goal, prompting Zidane to claim afterwards that his side hadn’t deserve to lose. But such excuses just don’t cut it.
Eden Hazard and Sergio Ramos were significant absentees but a club of Real’s resources shouldn’t be relying on two players to defeat this version of Shakhtar. Remember, the Ukrainians hadn’t scored a Champions League goal since winning in Madrid on matchday one with a squad decimated by coronavirus.
They’d also been thoroughly humiliated by Borussia Monchengladbach in their last two games, losing 6-0 at home to the Germans and 4-0 away. Yet Madrid, with Karim Benzema back in the starting line-up, carried very little attacking threat at the Kiev Olympic Stadium.
As Toni Kroos admitted afterwards, Real are “struggling to score goals this season” and, truth to be told, once they conceded, they never really looked like recovering. In fact, there was a certain inevitability about Shakhtar punishing them again on the break.
Madrid’s arguably surprising Liga triumph last season cheap football shirts replica was founded upon excellent defending but they’ve now conceded more goals (nine) after five Champions League group games than ever before.