Thibaut Courtois has criticised Real Madrid’s performance in their Champions League defeat against Real Madrid on Wednesday night and says they must improve in defence and attack.
The Spanish giants travelled to Paris for their opening Group A clash against an injury-hit PSG side who were without Kylian Mbappe, Edinson Cavani and the suspended Neymar.
But they were undone by two Angel Di Maria strikes in the first half and eventually lost 3-0 after Thomas Meunier added to the scoreline late on, with Courtois saying his teammates were second best throughout.
Speaking to Viasport after the match, Courtois said of his side’s performance: "I think we have to get better at not conceding goals, I think sometimes we concede goals too easily.In general, we defend with 11, we attack with 11 and we have to do that all game, for 90 minutes, and at this level if for one second you are not present, they can score, and I think that’s what we have to get better at."
Asked if PSG were the better team on the night, he continued: "Yeah, I think that’s true. From the start they had more intensity, maybe more aggressivity than us and in games like this, in the Champions League, it’s hard to come over that. I think it was hard to defend them and as well to attack them. I don’t think we created one chance on target. It’s a hard night but we have to analyse when everyone is relaxed and think about what we could do better."
Courtois was criticised for his role in PSG’s opening goal, with Di Maria’s effort sneaking past him at the near post, but the keeper felt it was well hit and criticised the lack of pressure on the Argentine before his second goal.
He added: "The first goal he shot really strongly at the first post and I didn’t have time to put my arm against it and the second was a great shot, but a guy with this talent we have to maybe be a bit closer on the ball to not let that happen."