REAL MADRID vs MANCHESTER CITY | Champions League Round of 16 1st Leg | 11.03.26 | 21:00 CET

I said Rudiger, who is fearless, in the game thread. Even Guler I would trust more than Vini in that situation out of those who were on the field.

I wish Fede would have just said ******** it and done it when Vini offered

 

I also thought of exactly that when Vini missed the penalty. But if it was 4:0 maybe the team would be too relaxed.

 

If any of them come back and even if they're "healthy" , I'd like Arbeloa not to risk them or a subpar performance and keep them on the bench

 

🚨 JUST IN: Arda Güler marking Erling Haaland in corners was NOT a mistake, it was a plan perfectly studied and analyzed.

Arbeloa & his coaching staff noticed that Haaland isn’t great at scoring headers from corners or set-pieces, and that Guardiola uses him to do the ‘dirty… pic.twitter.com/XxILaD9J4k

— Madrid Xtra (@MadridXtra) March 12, 2026

 

Please. I was replying to Saeta rubia about Vinicius penalty taking technique and that nitwit somehow found it appropriate to go off topic with personal trolling without any provocation from my side. If we've been here for 2 decades you should know I have zero tolerance for disrespect.

 

Has Guler ever taken PKs? The precision and power on his shot makes me think he would be good at them, the only reason he doesn't score more goals in open play is because he is shooting from so far out, usually fairly contested. Of course mentality is a huge factor in PKs too though.

 

Is he really that useless at corners?

 

"Deserves player of the week" is such an understatement. Valverde produced one of the greatest UCL performances of all time. It reminded me of Kaka vs Man U semi-final but with the added defensive masterclass. The new Lothar Matthaus.

 

"FotMob data indicates that Erling Haaland has scored 7 goals originating from corners during his career."
"As of December 2025, he has scored 17 header goals in the Premier League"

 

I don't really care who takes the penalities. There are 11 players on the field, there should be able to pick someone out who is semi-reliable.

If someone else can do it reliabilty, it takes the pressure off of Vini. He can concentrate on everything else. No need to place that burden on him if he is not good at it.

 

I pretty certain he's putting the burden on himself. He's shit at penalties. Simply don't take them.

 

He should be protected against himself. He'd be on the lower end of the starting eleven's list, if we're purely looking at it from a technical perspective. Sure, he'll score more than 50% of his PKs, like many professional football players would, but his shooting fundamentals are so mediocre and inconsistent, that I would rarely trust him in a one-off situation. And like I said, yes, he'll score more than 50% (and I'll go further: yes, he scored some very important ones too), but that doesn't mean he should be close to taking the PKs. I'm not disappointed in him tbh, I'm more disappointed about the lack of responsibility from his teammates (and the manager to a certain extent), e.g. TAA, Fede, Arda. When Mbappe is back, it's sorted out, but the problem is when Mbappe is not there.

 

You need your penalty taker to be at least close or hopefully over 75% in penalties. Vini is one of the worst takers, there's no technique, power, precision or even fooling the keeper.

 

Even 75% isn't good enough. There must be someone on our team that will score at least 90% of their penalties. Just needs someone who can kick the ball into a corner. We're Real Madrid. Whether that's a defender or someone else, there is SOMEONE on the team that should be better that Vini on penalties.

 

It’s Rudiger “bullying” Guler damn it!!!

Antonio Rüdiger up to his usual antics with Arda Güler. 😂 pic.twitter.com/cxMbNqxjly

— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) March 13, 2026

 

At least 90% of the penalties? Ronaldo is on 84%, Messi is on 77%

 

Maybe 90% is pushing it, but having a Jorginho, Bruno, Hakan type who are in that area is priceless.

 

You need to have a player who you know can hit it hard and low into a chosen corner under pressure. Ronaldo and Ruud both had that one stock penalty that was smashed into the bottom left corner, where even if the keeper dived the right way they wouldn’t get to it.

Once you master that, you basically force the keeper to dive early that way, and you can then go the other way or panenka it as and when you want.

Vinicius doesn’t have a good stock penalty because his shot accuracy is not good enough. That means if the keeper guesses the right way it’s likely to be saved.

Mbappe has missed a few but a player that can take two in a row in a World Cup final and be clinical both times should always be given priority. After that I think Jude should take them. Vinicius should be nowhere near a penalty, I would even pick Rudiger over him.

 

Fair. Then there should be someone on our team with at least 84%. With Vini, he doesn't even have a great technique. Event when not taking a penalty. Just simply should be no where near them.

 

People are talking as if Mbappe is gone forever. We're talking about a backup penalty taker, which realistically won't be as clinical as Cristiano freakin Ronaldo.

 

You think everyone always overthinks everything. Maybe you just underthink

 

Vini missing 6 out of 18 is bad, but I feel a lot of those misses came in last two seasons too. He was converting at a good rate in 2023-24.

So having him take key penalties during such a bad stretch in knockout games is poor planning from the coaches to say the least. Assign a better taker when Mbappe is out.