Right foot, left foot, volley. Not the textbook perfect hat-trick but perhaps an improvement on it. Fede Valverde was the hero for Real Madrid in their statement 3-0 win over Manchester City. It was one of the great Champions League performances.
This was supposed to be an opportunity for Pep Guardiola’s City side to stamp their authority on the tie with Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham among those injured. Madrid made all the right noises about never being underdogs but their form had been a worry.
Enter Valverde with a captain’s effort. Talk about stepping up. He credited his teammates and the coaching staff afterwards, pointing to the passes that he received for his goals. Typical modesty but it hardly told the tale of what he did at the Bernabeu. It was special.
The first goal owed everything to a sublime first touch, cushioning Thibaut Courtois’ long ball expertly – and he still had to round Gianluigi Donnarumma. The second featured stellar movement and a finish on his weaker foot. The third was a goal for the ages.
Valverde ran off the back of Rodri and made Marc Guehi look like a novice by lifting it over him and smashing the ball low into the corner. Bellingham could not believe it, watching on in the stands, giving it the ‘we are not worthy’ gesture and well he might.
‘Sensational!’ Michael Brown reacts to Federico Valverde’s hat-trick against Man City
It completed only the fifth first-half hat-trick in the Champions League knockout stages and the first against English opposition since Lionel Messi did for Arsenal 16 years ago. But Valverde’s hat-trick display was very different to those that have come before it.
He is not really a goal scorer at all, even though City fans will remember his outrageous volley against them in 2024 that won Champions League goal of the season. That was one of only three goals in his previous 75 appearances in the competition for Madrid.
But that is part of what made this performance so extraordinary. Valverde did so much more than score. He also made more tackles than anyone else on the pitch. Indeed, his total of four was twice as many as any hat-trick scorer in the Champions League this decade.
There was a moment during the first half when he tracked back to cover for Trent Alexander-Arnold. In the second, he could be seen slotting into the full-back position when the England international had ventured forward. No wonder his teammate adores him.
“I am running out of words to describe him,” Alexander-Arnold told CBS afterwards. “I think he is the most underrated footballer on the planet and he has been for years. Even when I wasn’t here I admired his game so much because there is no flaw in him.
“There is nothing he can’t do. The energy and what he brings to the team is absolutely immense. He pushes himself to the limit game in and game out. It is an incredible trait to have. Whether people agree or not, he is in the top tier of midfielders on the planet.”
Maybe it is that unfussy attitude that makes him an untypical superstar. “He never moans,” noted Alexander-Arnold. Galacticos tend not to be shunted around. “It does not matter where you put him,” said Real Madrid head coach Alvaro Arbeloa afterwards.
Fede Valverde’s minutes by position for Real Madrid in the Champions League
Valverde won his first Champions League on the wing and his second in midfield but has spent much of his time at right-back too. He can do that because of his physicality and that was a feature of this performance. He outclassed City and he outmuscled them.
Supporters love that and it is why so many Valverde shirts pepper the crowd. They know. It is an often overlooked side of Real Madrid that for all the glamour they, like most fans, also define themselves and their club by their fighting spirit. The Uruguayan typifies it.
It is the reason why, not for the first time, Arbeloa evoked the memory of the late Juan Gomez, better known as Juanito, when praising Valverde after the game. “He is the Juanito of the 21st century. Valverde is everything a Real Madrid player should be.”
Juanito has become a symbol of Madrid’s spirit. After a two-goal defeat to Inter in the first leg of the 1985 UEFA Cup semi-final, he famously said that 90 minutes is a very long time in the Bernabeu. So it proved as Madrid won 3-0 and went on to lift the trophy.
This victory by the same scoreline was inspired even more directly by Valverde. At 27, he is a player in his prime and in the absence of Mbappe and Bellingham finally getting his flowers. “He deserves a night like this,” said Arbeloa. He is Madrid’s underrated Galactico.
The pictures within this article were taken by OPPO Find X9 Pro. OPPO has partnered with UEFA Champions League since 2022 and currently serves as the Official Smartphone Product Partner.
