Benzema and Courtois’ ‘trick’ comes to light in the first leg of Real Madrid vs. Chelsea for Champions League

Just hours from Real Madrid vs. Chelsea, details of the first leg have come to light. Specifically, the protagonists of the story are Karim Benzema and Thibaut Courtois. It all happened before the striker scored a hat-trick and the goalkeeper blocked the local shots (with the exception of Kai Havertz’s header).

The Athletic media tells that the Belgian, who wore the ‘Blues’ shield a few years ago, had a plan to ruin the day for the English team. Then, ‘1’ warned the Frenchman about the best way to attack at Stamford Bridge, a stadium that the ‘Red Devils’ player knows perfectly well.

To go into details, Courtois asked Benzema that, if he won the draw prior to kick-off, he would choose to defend behind the local grandstand in the first half of the match. The ‘Gato’ won in the first match of the duel and listened to his partner. Thus, the goalkeeper felt the hostile reception from the London fans, although, as mentioned before, Thibaut already knew what he was facing.

Precisely, the international with Belgium knows, thanks to his past in England, that Chelsea has preference in attacking that goal during the second half. But, Karim’s unexpected decision changed everything, which is why the cited source speaks of a ‘psychological game’ for the hosts and that it was orchestrated by Courtois.

With the result in hand, everything indicates that the Real Madrid goalkeeper’s plan went perfectly, as the first half ended 1-2 with Benzema’s brace. For the complementary stage, the goalkeeper was monumental and the gal closed the night with another goal to go with an advantage to this Tuesday’s duel at the Santiago Bernabéu.

Courtois numbers

Thibaut, with a few exceptions, is in the group with the most appearances for Madrid this season. The goalkeeper was in 43 commitments adding 3 thousand 900 minutes on the field. In that number of games he received 35 goals, which gives an average of less than one goal per game. Likewise, the player who went through Atlético de Madrid has 18 unbeaten fences and can increase until the end of the 2021-2022 season.

Where to watch Real Madrid vs. Chelsea?

The second leg of the Champions League quarterfinals will start at 2 p.m. (Peruvian time). The match can be seen through the international ESPN signal and in streaming through the Star Plus platform.