Thibaut Courtois claimed Real Madrid missed an out-and-out number nine following their Champions League exit at the hands of Arsenal last night.
Despite possessing attacking players of the calibre of Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Jr, Rodrygo and Jude Bellingham, Belgium goalkeeper Courtois bemoaned a lack of firepower as they suffered a 5-1 aggregate defeat to the Gunners.
Indeed, it was one of Madrid’s heroes from last year that he pinpointed as one of the biggest losses.
“They [Arsenal] are a team that defends well, is well organised, they press well and it’s hard to find a gap against them,” said Courtois.
“We put in many crosses, but this year we don’t have a Joselu, a born striker up there, we have to analyse well what we can do better.”
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We need to be better – Courtois
Joselu, who now plays for Al-Gharafa in Qatar, scored two late poacher’s efforts as Madrid edged out Bayern Munich in last season’s semi-final and Courtois believes his no-nonsense approach was required.
He added: “We can’t always expect the four at the top to dribble past three men and score a great goal. As a team we have to attack and defend better.
“Sometimes you have to be self-critical and look at everything. This has to be done by everyone.
“I feel that we are a team, but we have to make more team plays and not all individual. If they double mark Vini or Kylian, a two-on-one comes out once but not five times.”
Arsenal beat Real Madrid to reach the semi-finals 💪#UCL pic.twitter.com/DNqHFf7XOV
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) April 16, 2025
Courtois impressed by Arsenal
Courtois can claim to have done his bit after saving a first-half penalty from Bukayo Saka. But the ‘remontada’ failed to materialise as Saka and Gabriel Martinelli netted either side of a Vinicius Jr goal.
“When you save a penalty, the belief that you can [come back] grows,” added Courtois.
“At the start of the match, we created a little bit of danger and the fans really pushed us on. But Arsenal are a team who are really organised and defend well – their wingers work back and their striker works back.
“At half-time, we really felt that if we scored first then the tie would be wide open. They scored, we equalised almost immediately, and we kept believing but we didn’t have that efficacy up front.”
🏆 Who will go all the way?#UCL pic.twitter.com/37fHpyU5N1
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) April 17, 2025
It was a difficult night – Vazquez
Madrid captain Lucas Vazquez struck a more conciliatory tone, and refused to blame one area of the team.
He said: “That was a difficult match. We didn’t create the goal chances we wanted. We never let the game get completely out of our grasp but it was a stop-start affair, full of interruptions, and things didn’t seem to fall our way when they were 50-50.
“Maybe we lacked a little bit of clarity when we were on the ball, possibly we could have been more patient in moving possession from side to side and stretching Arsenal. They really are terrifically organised defensively.
“Just as when we are all responsible for winning, we are all responsible when we lose – it’s simply part of football.”
