BARCELONA: Thibaut Courtois watched from the other end of the pitch as Real Madrid’s forward took turns crashing against the Arsenal defense.
Courtois had done his part by stopping a penalty. But Kylian Mbappé’s best shot sailed high and wide. Rodrygo’s dribbles got him nowhere, and Vinícius needed a defensive blunder to take Madrid’s sole goal of a 5-1 aggregate defeat in the Champions League quarterfinals.
“Sometimes you have to be self-critical and have a good look at everything,” the Belgian goalkeeper said after the 2-1 home loss to Arsenal midweek.
“Maybe we need to make more team moves and not so many individual ones, because if they double-mark Vini or Mbappé they can break it once, but not three, four or five times,” Courtois said. “We can’t always rely on one of our four attacking players dribbling past three defenders and scoring a great goal, we have to attack and defend better as a team.”
Exiting from the competition they have won five times in the last decade was not what Madrid expected when they added Mbappé to a squad that was coming off a record 15th European Cup and Spanish league title last season.
The France captain has scored a glut of goals in his first season with Madrid but failed to come up big in the biggest games, including two lopsided losses to Barcelona. Jeers were heard for Mbappé when he limped off the field on Wednesday with a hurt right ankle.
The hard truth is that the team have played worse with him on board. Madrid have had injuries in defense and they lost midfielder Toni Kroos to retirement but their attack has failed to click, with Mbappé having to adapt to a central striker role as Vinícius’ production dropped.
Courtois even called into question the range of attacking options for a squad that also counted on Endrick and Brahim Díaz as sparks off the bench. The goalie said Madrid were missing the tall, big striker who could win balls in the box like Joselu Mato, who scored critical goals in last season’s Champions League.
“It was difficult to find openings and we had little success. We were also unlucky with balls into the box. This year we don’t have a Joselu who can win those duels,” Courtois said. “Now we have to analyze what we can do better because we still have the (Spanish) league, the final of the Copa del Rey and the Club World Cup, and we want to get everything right.”
Athletic Bilbao up next in La Liga
There will be little let up for Madrid with a strong Athletic Bilbao arriving on Sunday aiming to dig into the wound left by Arsenal.
Madrid must try to overhaul a four-point deficit to Barcelona in La Liga as they try to salvage the season by defending their domestic title.
Madrid could be facing a seven-point gap with Barcelona by kickoff, if the front-runner beat Celta Vigo at home on Saturday.
Madrid will also face Barcelona in the Copa del Rey final next week, but coach Carlo Ancelotti will likely also need his team to retain the league crown to keep his job. The Italian manager admitted his future was in doubt after his team was outplayed by Arsenal, while also attempting to dampen speculation.
“I’m only thinking about preparing for the next game to stay in the fight for the league title and try to win the Copa del Rey,” he said.

LOS ANGELES: Tyler Herro scored 38 points as the Miami Heat cruised past the Chicago Bulls 109-90 to keep their NBA playoff hopes alive on Wednesday.

Miami point guard Herro led from the front in a wire-to-wire victory that eliminated Chicago from postseason contention and sends the Heat into a winner-take-all clash against the Atlanta Hawks on Friday.

The winner of Friday’s Miami-Atlanta game will advance to the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, where they will face No.1 seed Cleveland.

“We just came out in attack mode,” Herro told ESPN after Wednesday’s win.

“We had a couple of days off since the last game — myself, my teammates and the coaching staff put in a lot of work and it paid off.

“We’ve got one more to go. The job is not done yet, just to get in the playoffs. So we’ve got a long way to go.

“We have a bunch of guys who come in every day, put their hard hats on and they work. The season hasn’t exactly gone how we wanted it to, but we continue to get better. There’s a lot to look forward to.”

Herro was backed by 20 points from Andrew Wiggins, while Bam Adebayo and Davion Mitchell scored 15 points apiece.

Australian international Josh Giddey led Chicago’s scorers with 25 points.

Wednesday’s win marked the third season in a row that Chicago have been eliminated from the play-in tournament by Miami.

Miami, who finished 10th in the Eastern Conference regular season standings, were always in control after making a fast start against a surprisingly lackluster Chicago line-up.

Herro did most of the early damage, scoring from his first eight attempts to pour in 16 points in a 39-28 first quarter that left Miami in control at Chicago’s United Center.

A dominant second quarter — Miami outscoring Chicago 32-19 — left the Heat leading 71-47 with the Bulls seemingly powerless to halt the flow of Heat scoring.

Although Chicago rallied in the third quarter, outscoring Miami 27-17, it was too little too late and the Heat closed out a comfortable win in the fourth.

In Wednesday’s other play-in game, Anthony Davis and Klay Thompson combined for 50 points as the Dallas Mavericks brought the Sacramento Kings’ season to a juddering halt with a 120-106 blowout on the road in California.

The Mavericks, who scraped into the play-in tournament after finishing in 10th place in the West, seized control of the game in an explosive second quarter, outscoring Sacramento 44-19 to build a hefty double-digit advantage which they held for the remainder of the game.

Former Golden State star Thompson rattled in 23 points while Davis, who joined Dallas in February from the Los Angeles Lakers following his former team’s trade for Luka Doncic, finished with 27 points and nine rebounds.

“We’re so desperate to keep the postseason alive,” Thompson said afterwards.

“It’s a privilege to play basketball at this time of year. I told the guys before the game ‘We have nothing to lose. Go out there with a free swing, play for each other and play free-minded.’ Because that’s when we’re at our best.”

Dallas will now play the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday with the winner advancing to a first-round playoff series against top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder.