Real Madrid brace for Arsenal’s set piece prowess ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League quarterfinal matchup

Thibaut Courtois insists that Real Madrid is ready to place their set piece behind them and to suppress one of the biggest threats of Arsenal in Tuesday’s Champions League Quarterfinal First Stage.

Mouctar Diakhabies header in Valencia’s 2-1 victory at the Santiago Bernabeu Was the 10th goal that Madrid admitted this season from the corners, a sick appearance seen that dead balls are one of the most devastating weapons in Arsenal’s, Erm, Arsenal. The 31 goals of Mikel Arteta have been scored in SET pieces league games Since the start of last season, Bayer Leverkusen in Europe’s top five competitions is only improved.

Their biggest set of weapon may be missing, Gabriel Magalhaes sidelined for the rest of the seasonBut the deliveries of Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice are often so dangerous that it does not require a huge center to come to the end. Madrid is certainly aware of the danger that their hosts can pose when the ball goes out of the game with Courtois -warning that Arsenal can only win a game from set pieces.

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“We worked yesterday to defend set pieces in the training,” said Courtois. “We know that Arsenal is good at them. We cannot give away too many corners. It is a matter of concentration. Sometimes the quality of the rival can cause us problems. They can be well positioned. We know how difficult it can be to defend against good positions, but we are ready to do this and that we have prepared well for this.

“We will defend the way we defend. We tend to defend in zonal systems with blocks, some go to man. Sometimes you have to use your intuition to know what post it is, we know that Arsenal will try to block me, we will protect against it.

“You can’t ask for an error. You have to defend set pieces. They can win such a game.”

Carlo Ancelotti was bullish in the same way and noted that Madrid is not struggling exactly to turn their dead balls into goals. Two of their goals in a 4-4 draw with Real Sociedad came that way, just like Vinicius’ in the loss for Valencia.

“They are really strong and dangerous in this situation,” said Ancelotti. “We try to defend as well as possible. We also have to do damage, we scored three goals in the last two games. It is a very important part of the game and then there is the rest.”

Arsenal free kicks and corners are not the only fixed plays that have recently come to the attention of the Madrid press. Vinicius may have scored on Saturday, but he also missed a penalty, just a few weeks after he had not defeated Jan Oblak from 12 meters. Ancelotti confirmed that the role of the first choice is penalty taker in the spotlight, but Vinicius supported to gather from the setback.

“I didn’t speak to him, I don’t have to,” he said. “He could have played better during the weekend, but I don’t have to talk to him about it. He is a young boy, he is going to play a great game tomorrow.”

The first stage on Tuesday puts the most successful side of the Champions League against someone who has been striving for a few years to just return to that phase. Last season’s draw against Bayern Munich, one where they were eliminated by Joshua Kimmich, was the first quarter finals that Arsenal had played in the competition for 14 years. Fifteen times champions Madrid are the most successful side, Dani Carvajal and Luka Modric are most successful players with six wins and Ancelotti on five on his most successful coach.

“Experience in this competition is real, very important,” said Ancelotti. “The experience means that you are not afraid to play this kind of game that puts a lot of pressure on you. This is personal, a lot of pressure on this game. Experience is really important, many players who have played all this kind of game gives the players more confidence.”