Real Madrid rested several big name players for Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League visit from CSKA Moscow, having already acquired a spot in the Round of 16.
You could very much tell, as Real suffered its heaviest home loss in UCL history.
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The three-time reigning champions were waxed 3-0 at the Bernabeu, giving the home crowd little to cheer.
Thibaut Courtois allowed all three goals, and probably won’t appreciate his work on at least two of the three.
Federico Valverde, Jesus Vallejo, Vinicius Junior, and Javier Sanchez got starts despite having a total of 22 appearances this season, with Toni Kroos, Dani Carvajal, and Gareth Bale coming off the bench and both Raphael Varane and Luka Modric unused subs.
Georgi Schennikov, Arnor Sigurdsson, and Fedor Chalov scored for CSKA, leaving Real manager Santiago Solari disappointed in his depth players and stars alike.
Solari: “Today I take and we take the risks with the line-up, that is my responsibility, of course. I thought it was necessary to give playing time to young players, to those coming back from injury. But we expected another result.”
— Dermot Corrigan (@dermotmcorrigan) December 12, 2018
