The Belgian kept a clean sheet in six of the last nine games he played in the competition
Nothing that has happened to Real Madrid in Europe these two years can be explained without it Thibaut Courtois. Nothing. The focus in football is more on those who score goals than those who evade them, but it is absolutely impossible not to divert different focus to the Belgian.
In a year in which the white team has struggled to improve defensively, Courtois has always performed at the highest level. The clean sheets were slow to arrive in the League, but it was never because of him. It was a collective thing, so was he, of course, but nobody could put Thibaut on the right track. It has been at a sensational level for years and has not fallen since.
But it is also that, if the Champions League has always been Madrid’s competition par excellence, it seems that Courtois has joined that class of players, like Benzema or Rodrygo, who are married to Europe. The Belgian is not leaving this year great moments like the stop at Cucurella last Tuesday he built a real wall, because in addition to the sensations, the data must be taken into account.
Of 33 stops He is the third goalkeeper with the most saves in the league so far, conceding just six goals in eight games. Furthermore, he left clean sheets in five of eight games that he has played this year, and if we add last season’s final, there are six games from the last 9 in Europe, including the last three in play-offs.
In fact, Real Madrid He had not left a clean sheet in a full draw since the round of 16 in 2016 against Roma with Keylor Navas under the bar. And he hadn’t left a clean sheet in a final since this year 2000 against Valencia with Iker Casillas. Courtois adds records game after game and writes for history and little by little he begins to look him in the face of the man from Mostola for the award of best goalkeeper in the history of Real Madrid. In fact, Courtois is already at his level for many.
His next challenge is huge, but Courtois is not only used to big challenges, he loves them. Trying to stop Erling Haaland he could make any other goalkeeper nervous, but not Thibaut. Who should be more concerned: Courtois with Haaland or Haaland with Courtois? The question is not easy at all, but of course I would not want to shoot if it is the Belgian who is under the crossbar.
Source: Goal