Real Madrid 2-2 Club Brugge: 4 talking points | UEFA Champions League 2019/2020
Real Madrid needed a late Casemiro strike to prevent themselves from falling to an embarrassing defeat to lowly Belgian side Club Brugge at the Santiago Bernabeu.
The visitors had raced into a 2-0 first-half lead, but second-half strikes by Sergio Ramos and Casemiro ensured both sides shared the spoils in what was an eventful game in the Spanish capital.
Nigerian striker Emmanuel Bonaventure Dennis was the star of the show, as he scored a brace inside 40 minutes to send silence a packed Bernabeu stadium. The first was fortuitously gotten after his mistimed shot crippled past Thibaut Courtois and was initially ruled out for offside before a VAR check rescinded the decision.
Five minutes before half-time, the 21-year-old Dennis got his second of the evening after he was on hand to capitalize from Luka Modric's careless pass to put the domestic table-toppers 2-0 up. This saw him become the third-youngest player to score a brace against Real Madrid in the Champions League after Alexander Pato and Delli Ali and put his side firmly in the driving seat.
Real Madrid's skipper Sergio Ramos halved the deficit 10 minutes into the second half after VAR checks revealed him to be marginally onside and a red card to Club Brugge skipper Ruud Vommer paved the way for Caemiro to equalize and spare Zinedine Zidane's blushes.
The stalemate leaves Real Madrid playing catch-up at this early point in the campaign and here, we highlight four talking points from the surprise 2-2 draw with Club Brugge in the Champions League.
#4 Defensive frailties comes to the fore again
Real Madrid's struggles at the back are well documented, and having started the campaign with nine goals conceded in the first four matches of the season, fans must have thought it would be another long season of goals being shipped in at the back.
However, Zinedine Zidane's men followed that embarrassing 3-0 defeat to PSG on matchday 1 with three consecutive clean sheets in LaLiga (the first time they have managed such under his management) and this feat was made the more impressive in that they faced both Sevilla and Atletico Madrid in that run.
The game against Club Brugge proved that those clean sheets were nothing more than a false dawn, as the Belgians got at the Real Madrid backline with ease, drawing flashbacks to their Champions League ouster at the hands of Ajax last season.
Thibaut Courtois was substituted at half-time for what was reported to be stomach upset, and though he was powerless to do anything about the goals that went past him, the fact of the matter is that he conceded two goals from just three shots he faced.
He was booed by the Bernabeu crowd which is an indication that Madridistas are getting fed up with their team's defensive shortcomings.