At a glance
- Aurelien Tchouameni won’t be able to play in the second leg of Real Madrid’s Champions League quarterfinal clash against Bayern Munich.
- The Frenchman protested post-match that his booking was “unfair”.
- Madrid trail 2-1 to the Germans, and need to pull off a remontada in Munich.
Real Madrid midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni protested that his suspension for picking up a yellow card against Bayern Munich was “unfair”.
The Frenchman started in the 2-1 Champions League quarterfinal loss to the Bavarians but will miss the second leg at the Allianz Arena, where Los Blancos have to win to at least force extra time.
Post-match in the bowels of the Bernabeu, Tchouameni said he didn’t believe he deserved to be cautioned when considering how the rough and tumble the game had been up to that point.
“For me it’s not yellow. I didn’t do anything, I’m running… And with all the fouls that came before, it’s unfair,” Tchouameni commented.
Asked to name who could replace him, Tchouameni scoffed. “Do you really think I’m going to answer that? We have a great team and whoever comes out is going to do very well. We’re going to go out to win in Munich,” he stated.
“We have to concede less and score more. It’s obvious, but we’re going to go out to win. We knew it was a two-legged tie and we still think we can go through. We’re going to give it our all, it’s going to be a hard game, but if we play at our level and come out with confidence we can do a lot of damage,” Tchouameni insisted.
While he found his booking to be as such, Tchouameni wouldn’t accept that the result was unfair.
“I don’t know if the result is unfair, but at 0-2, when it was difficult, we raised the level and generated more chances. We are going to work and prepare well for the match,” he concluded.
Who will replace Tchouameni in Real Madrid’s starting line up?
Eduardo Camavigna would usually be the first name out of the hat. But given his poor form and rumours of a possible exit, we can’t take that as as given now.
Likewise in the first leg, Thiago Pitarch showed that, at the age of 18, he perhaps isn’t ready for such a big stage – which is fine.
Though he’s usually more advanced, Jude Bellingham could play a deeper role in a creative midfield alongside Fede Valverde.
The Englishman made an impressive cameo off the bench as Madrid chased an equaliser, and Alvaro Arbeloa indicated he could be a cert in Bavaria.
“It’s not a right to earn the starting spot. And it’s not that I want to leave him out,” Arbeloa said in a post-match press conference. “It’s because he’d been out for a long time due to the injury. Hopefully we can play with Jude for 90 minutes every game.
“He gave us a lot, because he put the pressure on Bayern. I think he’s much better for the game [he played], and will help us a lot in Munich.”
