ONE | system
Newspaper headlines in Spain (screenshot)
“Real Madrid qualified for the final of the Spanish Super Cup with Thibaut Courtois locked in,” so wrote Marca after the performance of the Blancos goalkeeper last night (Wednesday) in the semi-finals of the tournament against Valencia, where he was decisive in a duel from the penalty spot and even made a great save in overtime.
“There is no question about him, a golden glove capable of bringing titles to the museum of the Bernabeu,” Marca added about the goalkeeper. “Courtois is worth a final”, added AS, where it was written that Real was “minor”. It was written about Vinicius Jr. that “his demons have returned” and also that he did not do too well on the grass and things did not work for him.
Carlo Ancelotti He spoke about the Brazilian winger at the end and said: “I wanted the three players with the most experience to kick first, Vinicius was the fifth, but it’s better that he didn’t kick. Our defense was good, their goal came from a collective mistake, our midfielders didn’t click and the defense players didn’t read the situation correctly.”
The Italian added: “Fitness is not our problem, we played even better in overtime. Eduardo Camabinga injured his knee, Lucas Vasquez sprained his ankle and Eder Militao felt a little dizzy. Vasquez’s injury looks more serious. It’s normal to see a drop in level just 20 days after the World Cup.”
Courtois revealed that he tried to learn where the Valencia players would kick: “Cavani tried to throw me last time to the right, then he kicked in the other direction. We knew their player who missed would kick hard to the right side. I knew Gaya missed his last penalty against Sevilla when he kicked to the left and against Betis he kicked to the middle, so I decided to stay in the middle and I was able to stop.”
The injuries of Vasquez, Kamabinga and Militau join those of David Alaba and Arelian Tshoumani, so Ancelotti has quite a few headaches before the final against the winner between Betis and Barcelona.
