Rüdiger as Haaland’s nightmare. Look how tightly he defended him

Erling Haaland made his first appearance at the Santiago Bernabéu. But he probably won’t remember it fondly. Antonio Rüdiger kept him down with his personal defence all game, which Nor couldn’t get out of.

Real Madrid’s current number 1 stopper Eder Militao was out due to cards. When Antonio Rüdiger and David Alaba played together, it was not ideal, the Brazilian was the solid point that kept the defence together.

But against Manchester City, Ancelotti couldn’t rely on him and so he sent on the Rüdiger-Alaba pairing. And that was against arguably the best striker in the world at the moment, Erling Haaland.

But the German-Austrian duo did just fine. Rüdiger was practically not a step away from Haaland for the whole game, and if he did get away from him like in the second half, he caught Alaba by surprise and blocked his shot in the whitewash with a great slide.

Rüdiger was excellent in his personality, Haaland was practically invisible the whole game, which is proved by only 9 successful passes in 90 minutes.

“Alaba and Rüdiger were very close to Haaland. We have to see if we can attack a bit better. Moreover, Valverde and Kroos were guarding the space in front of them, so it was not easy to find spaces for Erling. In the second game we will try to get him more into the rhythm,” Guardiola explained in his press conference why his attacking star was not seen as much.

And fans on social media enjoyed Rüdiger’s performance. Most impressive was the duel outside the box, when the German stopper Haaland carefully guarded literally with his body.

The fans really enjoyed the clash between the two physically supercharged footballers. The social media was full of funny comparisons.

Rüdiger was so glued to Haaland that the Norwegian striker was not breathing well. Fans joked that every time Haaland turned around, he could only see Rüdiger’s face from a millimetre away.

Source: Twitter, UEFA