Real Madrid vs Stuttgart UEFA Champion’s League 2024/25

UEFA Champion’s League 2024/25

First Game of the Season

17 September 2024

Santiago Bernabeu Stadium

First Half Highlights

Real Madrid had not been beaten in their last 13 Champions League matches, and here we go with the first match of the season at our home ground, Bernabeu Stadium. 

In the 2nd minute of the game, Stuttgart launched a good attack. A shot was fired from the right side of the post, but Courtois could block the shot somehow. It was a dangerous situation at the start of the game. 

Stuttgart seemed bent on an early attack, playing an aggressive game from the beginning. In the 8th minute, a Stuttgart player received a pass inside the box and just one-to-one with the keeper, Courtois. He shot a ground ball with his left foot towards the right pole, but it missed the post and went for out ball by the right of the post. It was a massive opportunity to score a goal for Stuttgart.

Stuttgart continued pressing. In the 12th minute, Mbappe got a chance for a goal shot which he took from his left side after beating a player, but the ground shot landed straight in the arms of the goalkeeper. 

Stuttgart, as I said, is all out on attack and trying to score as early as possible. There is another good attempt by a Stuttgart player from just outside the 18-yard line. His shot was high and powerful aiming at the far corner of the post, but it was Courtois who was able to push the ball out of the crossbar and thus he saved another very dangerous ball. 

In the 16th minute, again there developed a very dangerous situation, one-to-one with the goalkeeper, Courtois, with an attacking player. A Stuttgart player received a very tricky pass inside the box and he found himself with one to one-on-one situation with the keeper. Luckily Courtois could touch the ball with his right hand and sent the ball for corner kick. 

So far in this game, Courtois had saved 3 to 4 dangerous shots neutralizing Stuttgart’s attacks. Stuttgart was very agile and active in comparison to Real Madrid players who seemed to be more relaxed and sluggish. Courtois deserves credit for keeping Real Madrid in the game, as Stuttgart could easily have been ahead by 2 or more goals by now. 

By this point, Real Madrid had only 2 attempts on goal, compared to Stuttgart’s 6. Of those, 1 was on target for Real Madrid and 4 for Stuttgart. Stuttgart had also completed 175 passes, while Real Madrid managed just 78. 

Vazquez received a yellow card in the 23rd minute for a silly challenge. 

Mbappe led an attack in the 25th minute of the game from his left flank. He entered the box beating two players, and shot a powerful ball, but the keeper was alert and the ball was deflected by his body and the attempt was nullified. 

Rodrygo led another attack from the right flank and he got deep into the box and close to the box. He a shot but as the angle was tight, the keeper got hold of the ball, and again, another good attempt failed to produce any result. 

In the 28th minute, Valverde led an attack on the right flank, and as he entered the box, he passed the ball to Mbappe who was rushing and open for goal shot. But the passed ball was cut off by a defender and thus the chance was foiled. 

Immediately afterward, Stuttgart led a counterattack on the right side of the field with 3 attackers to two defenders. As they entered the box, an attacking player shot the ball powerfully, but the ball hit a defending player, Carvajal, and the deflected ball flew high and dropped on the crossbar and went out. Had the ball come into the box, Courtois could not have saved that ball as he was sprawled on the ground.

In about the 30th minute of the game, Bellingham passed the ball to Rodrygo and he rushed with the ball into the box, beat a defender, and had a good shot at close range. But his shot was deflected by a defender and the ball flew out for a corner. It was a good pass by Bellingham and Rodrygo did his best to get a goal for his team. 

The corner ball found Tchouameni and his heading ball straight into the hand of the goalkeeper with no result.

Real Madrid pressed for a couple of minutes and in the 33rd minute, Rudiger was fouled inside the box. The referee pointed at the penalty spot.

Though the referee initially awarded a penalty, after a VAR review, he decided there was not enough contact to justify the foul.

In the 39th minute, Vazquez gave a poor pass to an opponent player, and there occurred quite a fuss in the Madrid box. An opposing player eventually managed to shoot, but the ball directly hit Courtois and he was able to block away the ball. 

At one instant, Carvajal tried to push an opponent player, and that player happened to be a huge man, the push did not affect that player but caused the opposite result. It was Carvajal, who had to be treated by the medical team for a while. It was a little funny.

In the 1st half, the game was quite exciting as Stuttgart kept coming attacking and they were the ones who created a couple of good chances for goal-scoring. It was their lack of clinical finishing that kept them goalless. Real Madrid played a slow and relaxed way, except for a couple of times, they lacked creating real and dangerous goal-scoring situations. Stuttgart’s speed and agility in the game provided thrill and excitement to the spectators and the television viewers all over. 

The ball possession percentage was only 47% for Real Madrid while Stuttgart had 53% during the 1st half of the game. 

2nd Half  Highlights

As soon as the 2nd half began, Rodrygo received a pass on the left flank from Tchouameni. He rushed into the box and he saw Mbappe waiting for the ball wide open. As Mbappe received the pass ball, it was all easy for him to throw the ball into the empty net. What a goal for Madrid! In the 2nd half a goal within a minute of the game. 

Again Mbappe had the ball in the 48th minute in the left flank and he rushed into the box and took a goal shot too, but the keeper well blocked the ball and got a corner kick. Two great chances were created within two minutes only. 

In the 51st minute, Vini ran with the ball from the left flank into the box and passed the ball to Mbappe, he, in turn, gave the ball to Valverde who had an open chance for the shot, instead he passed the ball to Rodrygo on the left and Rodrygo got fumbled with defenders and the chance was lost. Looking at the situation, here Valverde had wide open post without any defenders in between. He lacked a quick and accurate decision in this instance and missed the opportunity. 

Stuttgart created two attacks one after the other about the 57th minute, Courtois blocked one and the other caught the ball well in hand, thus the attempts were well foiled. 

In the 59th minute, Carvajal gave a pass to Vini just outside the box, and Vini took a left foot good shot at the post just from the 18-yard line. The shot was good, but unluckily, the ball hit the crossbar and bounced out. It was a good attempt by Vini.

In this second-half game, Real Madrid was playing more aggressively, and they kept attacking the Stuttgart goalpost again and again, unlike the 1st half, where it was the other way around. 

A minute later, Stuttgart led an attack and they had a ground shot at the post, but Courtois blocked that shot and pushed away, so no harm was done. 

There was a foul on Vini in the 60th minute, and Ancelloti too complained about it. Alas! He was given a yellow card by the referee for his complaint.

In the 67th minute of the game, Stuttgart kept pressing, and they had a goal shot, but the shot was blocked by a Madrid defender, and the ball went out for a corner. The corner ball was headed away by a Madrid player, but it landed in the feet of an attacking player, and he passed to a teammate, Undav, who headed the ball home. 

Thus, they scored their first goal after numerous attempts in this game. Undav was not marked and he had a chance to head the open ball to the goalpost. He did it brilliantly and Courtois had no chance to stop it as he had gone the other way and fell on the ground. 

Now the score was one goal for each team. The game was turning interesting and more exciting moments were waiting to come. 

Tchouameni was replaced by Luca Modric in the 70th minute. 

In the 73rd minute, there was a sharp pass into the box by the Stuttgart team and an attacking player got the ball on the left inside the box. Rudiger fought for the ball with that player, Undav, and held on to him and thus rescued the danger for his team.  

Last 10 minutes or so Stuttgart had been coming back strongly and looking for their 2nd goal it seemed. Real Madrid had not been able to launch any dangerous ball all this time.

Guler and Fran Garcia replaced Rodrygo and Mendy in the 75th minute.

In the 78th minute, Valverde received a yellow card for a sliding challenge into an opposition player who had to be attended by the medical team. 

In the 80th minute, Bellingham was replaced by Endrick, as he had just returned from injury. 

Madrid earned a corner ball, and Modric took the corner. The corner shot was well received by Rudiger, and he headed the ball beautifully into the post and thus scored a 2nd goal for his team. Though the box was quite crowded with many players, it was Rudiger who could get to head the ball and it landed well into home for the joy of his team. It was a brilliant attempt by Rudiger. 

In the 94th minute of the game, Endrick passed the ball to Vini just outside the 18-yard line. Vini ran with the ball and he had only to beat the keeper, a good opportunity for scoring a  3rd goal. Once again, the keeper blocked the ball and saved Vini scoring a 3rd goal against Stuttgart. 

Modric got a yellow card for a foul in the final minute of the added time. 

Stuttgart got a free kick for this foul. It was a final chance for Stuttgart to do something. The free-kick ball was deflected toward Endrick by Carvajal, and he took the ball and ran from his half toward the opponent’s field on a counterattack. As he approached, he shot a powerful left-footed ground shot from just outside the 18-yard line in the post, and the ball went past a defender and the goalkeeper into the box, finding its destination. The goalkeeper could barely touch the ball. Endrick scored his first Champion’s League goal debut in the game. 

It was a superb goal hit with precision and power at the dying minute of the extra time of the game. Endrick proved his skill and presence in the game though he was in for just 15 minutes only. He had Mbappe on his left and Vini on the right, but he decided to shoot himself as he was sure of his shot and he proved his decision was right. 

This was a signature goal of Real Madrid as they always find this kind of goal in the dying minutes of great games. 

Though Real Madrid managed to score 3 goals to 1 against Stuttgart, they could not maintain that high level of game strategy and play as we had seen in this game. Stuttgart was rather better most of the time and kept attacking from the beginning till the end, only they lacked precision in scoring goals. 

Madrid needs to develop that magical cooperation among the players and play flamboyantly with controlled attack and solid defense without any slackened situations and loopholes. Forwards need to be fed with attacking balls more frequently, which we missed seeing much in this match. I hope with more game practices, the team will get to perform better in upcoming matches. 

Statistics

Real Madrid                            Stuttgart

46%              Ball Possession        54%

20                 Total Shots                 17

8                    Shots on target         7

7                    Blocked shots            3

10                 Corner kicks              6

13                 Fouls                             9

6                   Saves                             5

4                  Yellow card                 1

432             Passes                           518

(Source: scorvisit.com)