5 things we learnt about Real Madrid from their 3-1 win over AC Milan
Julen Lopetegui's Real Madrid side played its first home game against Italian giants AC Milan to compete for the Santiago de Bernabeu trophy yesterday. Every year a team is invited to take on the Spanish Giants for the trophy before the start of the season.
Real Madrid's actual season starts when they face their city rivals, Atletico Madrid, in the UEFA Super Cup on the 15th of August.
Their encounter against Milan was the last match in which Lopetegui could plan and try out his tactics for the season, decide his lineups and get to know his players' abilities. Evidently, he started his best line up against Milan, where Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale and Borja Mayoral each scored to seal the win for the Los Blancos.
Let's take a look at 5 talking points from the match.
#5 Luka Modric still to be vital:
Even though Modric started on the bench, he did not fail to showcase his class in the 15 minutes for which he was present on the pitch. The 32-year-old Croatian midfielder almost bagged a goal and also played a couple of one-twos and dribbled past players resulting in a standing ovation from the fans.
The Croatian was heavily linked with Inter but now he's set to stay at Real with an improved salary after an excellent performance in the World Cup. It will be interesting to see how Lopetegui is going to use him in his side.
#4 Confusion over Navas and Courtois
Real Madrid may have signed the golden glove winner from 2018's World Cup, but it might prove to be a tough task to choose the starter between 26-year-old Courtois or Madrid's previous first-choice keeper, Keylor Navas. Keylor Navas has been in the best form of his career in the past few seasons and showed some good reflexes in the World Cup and during yesterday's match as well.
Navas has been highly underrated despite being one of the top reasons for Real Madrid's UCL domination over the years.
Courtois was expected to make his debut against Milan but the Real Madrid boss chose Navas to start in the goal. It'll be interesting to see whom he chooses to be the regular starter in the team. With Courtois having been desperate to complete the move to Real Madrid, it would be ironic if he does not start regularly.