22-year-old Real Madrid midfielder unable to take full advantage of his latest UCL start | OneFootball

Real Madrid were able to get a single-goal advantage over Atletico Madrid in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 tie at the Santiago Bernabeu.

The match ended 2-1 in the Merengues’ favour, as goals from Rodrygo Goes and Brahim Diaz were enough to give their team an advantage ahead of the second leg, even though the Colchoneros were also able to get on the scoresheet through Julian Alvarez.

Federico Valverde and the two goalscorers were inarguably the best players for Los Blancos in this game, while Ferland Mendy also had another good outing. On the other hand, the two big superstars, Vinicius Junior and Kylian Mbappe, were unable to influence the game much.

In the midfield, Aurelien Tchouameni also put in a very good performance. However, his colleague, Eduardo Camavinga was unable to take full advantage of the opportunity, that came his way mainly because of the injury to Dani Ceballos and the suspension of Jude Bellingham, and lay a claim for more prominence in Carlo Ancelotti’s plans.

The highlight of the French midfielder’s performance on the night remains his error in the 32nd minute, which allowed Julian Alvarez to advance into the Real Madrid box and score the equalising goal for Atletico Madrid.

Meanwhile, Camavinga was also not as involved in the game as one would have expected him to be.

In his 62 minutes on the pitch, Sofascore statistics show that he was able to get on the ball only 52 times, which is not only significantly less than his partner in midfield, Aurelien Tchouameni, who made 96 touches on the ball but also less than Luka Modric, who replaced him in the 62nd minute and was able to make 56 touches in his 28 minutes on the pitch.

The Frenchman was quite accurate with his passing, recording a 98% success rate. However, he attempted only 41 passes, of which he missed only 1. Meanwhile, Tchouameni attempted 90 passes and Modric made 50 passes in this game.

He also left a lot to be desired in his intensity, as he won only 3 of the 7 ground duels he was involved in. However, despite his error in the goal, he made some notable defensive contributions, including 3 clearances and 2 tackles. He also successfully completed all 4 of his 4 attempted long passes.

Thus, this was not entirely a poor performance from Camavinga, but keeping in view the competition that he faces in the Real Madrid midfield, he needed to have done so much more to ensure a prominent place for himself in Ancelotti plans in the upcoming crucial phase of the season.