Thibaut Courtois: 8. He made four saves and was successful late on, with Real Madrid down to 10 men and Villarreal pressing for an equalizer.
Trent Alexander-Arnold: 7. Played incredible passes over the top to Mbappé. Less convincing defensively, even if he hasn’t been tested particularly often.
Ibrahima Konaté: 6.5. His passing was poor at times, but he did a good job clearing crosses.
Antonio Rudiger: 7.5. A retrospective Rüdiger performance. Finished with eight clearances and commanded the defensive line impressively.
Alvaro Carreras: 5. Struggled defensively and played two particularly poor passes that could have proved costly. His best moment was an early takedown from Mbappé who nearly produced an assist, but he was replaced at half-time.
Fede Valverde: 8. He performed well in the double pivot, but looked more dangerous when he swapped positions with Arda Güler and attacked down the right flank. Moved to right-back in the second half, he really came to life and provided the assist for Yan Diomandé’s winning goal.
Aurélien Tchouaméni: 7. I distributed the ball well and made big challenges.
Arda Güler: 8.5. Real Madrid’s brightest player. Was the team’s best player in the first half and continued to advance the ball vertically with conviction throughout the match. Finished with the most progressive passes of any player.
Jude Bellingham: 7. Very unlucky not to register an assist when Vinícius’ goal was disallowed. His run to create the chance was brilliant. Strong defensively as always, although perhaps calmer than usual overall.
Yan Diomandé: 7.5. Had a few good races but struggled to pass Freeman. However, he delivered the decisive moment by scoring the only goal of the match.
Kylian Mbappé: 6.5. Showed good link-up play and dribbling, but his finishing was below the required level. There were two clear chances: one hit the post, while the other begged after Vinícius sent it through on goal.
Marc Cucurella: 7.5. Probably his best performance of the season. Came on at halftime and finished with more tackles than anyone else on the team.
Vinicius Jr.: 6. A bizarre performance and incredibly difficult to rate. He was exceptional as a spark off the bench, rousing the crowd and creating chances. He even scored – only for the goal to be disallowed after a VAR review identified a red card for pulling Nathan Saliba’s hair. All this good work was overshadowed by a dismissal which forced Real Madrid to try to protect their lead with 10 players.
Eduardo Camavinga: 6.5. He had limited influence on the ball, with most of his time on the pitch being spent on defense. Also shifted to the left to help Cucurella.
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