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.

LONDON: Newcastle thrashed Crystal Palace 5-0 Wednesday for their second big win in four days and climbed to third place in the Premier League.

Four of the goals came in the first half at St. James’ Park, through Jacob Murphy, Harvey Barnes, Fabian Schar as well as an unfortunate own-goal by Marc Guehi. Sandwiched between them was a lazily taken penalty for Palace by Eberechi Eze that was saved by Newcastle goalkeeper Nick Pope.

Alexander Isak added a fifth goal in the 58th minute — for his 21st of the campaign — as Newcastle followed up their 4-1 hammering of Manchester United on Sunday to make it six wins in a row in all competitions. That streak included a victory over Liverpool in the English League Cup final for a first major trophy in 70 years.

Newcastle jumped above Nottingham Forest and within four points of second-place Arsenal, and look in good shape for a return to the Champions League next season. The Premier League will have five representatives and Newcastle is five points clear of sixth-place Chelsea with six games remaining.

The dominant display will have made for good viewing for Newcastle manager Eddie Howe, who is recovering in the hospital after being diagnosed with pneumonia.

Howe also missed the Man United match — and Newcastle are doing just fine without him at the moment.

“Everyone has shared texts with him (Howe) and he’s on the road to recovery,” said Murphy, who had the goal of the night with a fierce, rising drive from an acute angle to set Newcastle on its way.

“We’re missing him but once again I think we put a performance in that he’d be really proud of.”

Palace conceded five goals for the second straight game, having lost 5-2 at Manchester City on Saturday.

“We’ve changed nothing but things aren’t working anymore,” Palace manager Oliver Glasner said. “We have to be very honest — we’re Crystal Palace and if we don’t perform at our top level, Newcastle and Manchester City are better than us.”

Things might have been different had Eze converted the penalty — awarded after Pope missed the ball when attempting to punch clear and barged into Palace defender Chris Richards — when the score was 1-0.

Instead, Pope went the right way and flopped on Eze’s weak spot kick.

“When he scores, no one says anything,” Guehi said of Eze. “It happens. We just have to move on.”