Real Madrid defeated Juventus by a minimum of 1:0 in the round of 16 match of the Club World Cup and continues to advance in the tournament, reported sportal.bg.
The unexpected hero for the “whites” from Spain in Miami was again named Gonzalo Garcia, as he scored the goal in the 54th minute after a perfect assist from Trent Alexander-Arnold. The 21-year-old center forward participated in the tournament as a substitute for the previously absent Kylian Mbappe and already has three goals.
Mbappe himself returned to this match, entering as a reserve in the second half. He has been recovering from an illness so far.
Juventus were on a high before the break and were the more dangerous team, and right from the start Randal Kolo Muani missed a shot alone against the goalkeeper. After the break, however, Real dominated completely.
In the quarter-finals, Real will face the better of Borussia (Dortmund) and Monterrey, which start at 04:00 in the morning.
A big storm broke out about two hours before the start of the match, but the rain gradually stopped and the match started normally. He returned for the start of the second half, but in the end the match did not require an interruption.
Kylian Mbappe was in the Real group, but as expected, he was not a starter, as he has been recovering from an illness. Daniel Carvajal and Eder Militao were also on the bench after recovering from injuries. Coach Xabi Alonso relied on the same 11 that started against RB Salzburg in the previous match. So again the teenager Gonzalo Garcia was in attack. The team again started in a scheme with three central defenders.
At the same time, Juve coach Igor Tudor made a bunch of changes compared to the team that came out against Manchester City (2:5) in the previous match. Daniele Rugani was in defense, and in the forward positions he started a completely different trio - Randal Kolo Muani, Kenan Yildiz and Francisco Conceicao.
Real pressed from the start, but Juventus missed the first clear situation. In the 7th minute, Kolo Muani found himself alone against Courtois, but crossed the goal.
Just four minutes later, the Spaniards were lucky again, when a shot by Kenan Yildiz almost stopped in the net. "Bianconeri" continued to be more dangerous in attack and in the 23rd minute Conceicao headed a pass from the left, but it went straight into Courtois' hands.
Real first had a clear chance half an hour after the start, when Bellingham found himself right in front of goalkeeper Di Gregorio, who saved his shot.
Real Madrid then dominated again, but it was not until the end of the half that Di Gregorio had to show his class again, deflecting a long-range shot from Valverde.
The captain of "los blancos" "discovered" the scoring opportunities for the second half as well, with his left-footed shot in the 47th minute almost giving the team an advantage.
A speedy attack by Vinicius followed, followed by a series of heavy shots by Bellingham and Hausen, which also failed to score.
However, such a goal came seconds later - in the 54th minute, when Gonzalo Garcia headed in an excellent cross from Trent - 1:0 for Real Madrid.
Juve immediately responded with a tricky shot by Conceicao, which was nevertheless saved by Courtois. In the 61st minute, Valverde shone with an acrobatic performance and was not far from scoring for 2:0. In the 72nd minute, Juventus' goalkeeper also managed to save Arda's dagger shot.
The substitutions made by Igor Tudor did not yield any results, as Juventus never seriously threatened Real until the end of the match.