Thibaut Courtois was not impressed with his teammates’ start to the game in Leipzig (Picture: Getty Images)
Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibault Courtois has hit out at his teammates’ lack of intensity and aggression during their defeat to RB Leipzig in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
The Spanish giants were beaten 3-2 in Germany, falling two goals behind after just 18 minutes thanks to efforts from Joko Gvaridol and Christopher Nkunku.
Vinicius Junior got Real back into the game, but Timo Werner restored the two-goal lead after 81 minutes and a late Rodrygo penalty could not make the difference for the visitors.
Carlo Ancelotti’s side remain top of Group G with one game to play at home against Celtic, so it is no disaster for them, but Courtois was very critical of his team’s attitude.
The former Chelsea stopper says the team were well aware of Leipzig’s threat, but were not in the mindset to compete with them at the start of the match.
‘Sometimes we go out asleep, without aggressiveness or intensity, and against a team like Leipzig, you pay dearly,’ said Courtois after defeat in Germany.
‘The coach had warned us that they score a lot of goals in their last five games at home and even so we went out there wrongly.
‘It cannot be that in two corner kicks they score two goals and we defended so badly in the second. We scored the goal before the break, but in the second half we failed many passes, controls and it was not a good game.
‘The third, it kills you for the final minutes… as a goalkeeper from behind you notice that you haven’t entered the game, they won each duel and it happened in both goals, we defended badly due to lack of intensity.
‘We have to wake up, a bad day can happen because there are many games in a row in a short time, but intensity cannot be lacking even if we are tired. There are players on the bench and you have to give one hundred percent every second.’
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The goalkeeper has a very honest assessment.