As per Diario AS<\/a>, head coach Alvaro Arbeloa gave his thoughts on the match. He explained that it was difficult for his side in the opening stages, but they got better as proceedings went on.<\/p>\n \u201cIn any game you\u2019re not going to have it easy. You\u2019re going to suffer, it\u2019s the best competition in Europe. They pressed us, it was difficult for us to get out, there was space at the back and we didn\u2019t take advantage of it. Until we corrected that a little after half time, and that\u2019s when we did better. We went from strength to strength.\u201d<\/p>\n Arbeloa was pleased with the performance of Aurelien Tchouameni, who scored Real Madrid\u2019s equaliser on the night.<\/p>\n \u201cTchouameni\u2019s goal was very important. We\u2019ve talked about it a lot these days, he\u2019s at a spectacular level. If he was able to accompany, he was going to score goals. It\u2019s the first of many he\u2019s going to score, I hope.\u201d<\/p>\n Arbeloa also heaped praise on Vinicius Junior, who scored<\/a> once again.<\/p>\n \u201cHe played a great game, very unbalanced, scoring goals, creating danger. He has a lot of MVPs at home so it is good for Tchouameni to get this one \u2013 he does the dirty work that is usually not recognised much. When Mbappe was there we already needed him, and now that he is not, we need him much more. He must be our leader and our reference. We have seen that he can make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n Raul Asencio was forced off in the second half after taking a blow to his head, and Arbeloa has confirmed that the Real Madrid defender has gone to hospital. However, he does not believe the issue to be serious.<\/p>\n \u201cIt looks like something with the neck, it doesn\u2019t seem serious. He has gone to the hospital, hopefully it is just a scare. The blow has been tremendous, our stomachs have shrunk. But it looks like it\u2019s going to be nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n Arbeloa also explained the situation with Kylian Mbappe, who dropped out of the squad to face Benfica at the last minute.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t say the difference between discomfort and injury. The best thing was to stop and recover. He can\u2019t play. We hope he will be back in a few days or weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The post Real Madrid manager Alvaro Arbeloa clarifies Kylian Mbappe situation after latest injury setback<\/a> appeared first on Football Espa\u00f1a<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Real Madrid booked their place in the Champions League Round of 16 after a 2-1 victory over Benfica on Wednesday, which ensured a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5266,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5264"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5264"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5267,"href":"http:\/\/www.piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5264\/revisions\/5267"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Arbeloa: Tchouameni is going to score goals for Real Madrid<\/h2>\n
Vinicius \u201cmust be our leader and our reference\u201d \u2013 Arbeloa<\/h2>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.piquant-burotic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/real-madrid-cf-v-sl-benfica-uefa-champions-league-2025-26-league-knockout-play-off-second-leg-scaled.jpg\")
Arbeloa clarifies Asencio, Mbappe injury cases<\/h2>\n