A brace from Vinicius Jr. and an Asensio strike helps Los Blancos earn a deserved advantage over Liverpool in the Quarter Finals of the UEFA Champions League. Although, Mohamed Salah scored a crucial away goal the tie can still be considered one-way traffic for Real Madrid.

Big Matches like this produce impressive takeaways and help in finding a player’s true character.

So let’s have a look at the 3 main talking points from the 1^st leg of the tie.

Clash of two improvised defenses

Liverpool and Real Madrid are the two teams in Europe who were hit by one of the worst injury crises this season. Liverpool lost their star defenders Virgil Van Dijk, Joel Matip and Joe Gomez to injury and Real Madrid were without their talisman Sergio Ramos and a shock COVID case of Raphael Varane added to the pile. However, Real Madrid’s second-string defense won the day as they held firm till the last minute compared to the numerous mistakes from the Red’s defenders.

Won and lost in the midfield

It was another inspiring and magnificent performance from Luka Modric and Toni Kroos, who once again proved why they are the best midfielders of the 21^st century. Liverpool’s midfield was no match for the German and the Croat who toyed around with the Red`s midfield. Also not to forget, is Casemiro, Real Madrid’s wall in the midfield, who also produced an excellent performance. He fought with exhaustion and held the team firm and defensively sound till the last minute.

Vini, Vedi, Vici

Madridistas will be welcoming the El Clasico with an extra buzz of confidence as they now know the damage Vinicius can inflict against competitive opponents. Vinicius was the star man in the pitch as he bagged a brace and put Real Madrid in prime position to advance to the Sem-Finals of the UCL. The winger duo of Asensio and Vinicius was class as their pacey runs behind the defense to convert through balls was a master tactic from Zidane which paid off successfully. That long ball from Kroos to Vinicius for Real Madrid’s first goal, literally gave me goosebumps