{"id":25839,"date":"2026-03-13T03:27:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T03:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/13\/why-thibaut-courtois-humiliated-rafinha-with-his-assist-to-valverde-in-the-champions-league\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T03:27:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T03:27:28","slug":"why-thibaut-courtois-humiliated-rafinha-with-his-assist-to-valverde-in-the-champions-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/13\/why-thibaut-courtois-humiliated-rafinha-with-his-assist-to-valverde-in-the-champions-league\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Thibaut Courtois humiliated Rafinha with his assist to Valverde in the Champions League"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ue-c-article--first-letter-highlighted\"><span class=\"capital-letter\">I<\/span>It&#8217;s not just a matter of a few games, or just this one season. The truth is that Thibaut Courtois has been one of Real Madrid&#8217;s best players for quite some time and is another great success story for club president Florentino Preez.<\/p>\n<p>Every time he comes under pressure, the Belgian goalkeeper reacts inside the goal, but surprisingly, he has revealed a side that can also play in the best possible way.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"ue-c-article__subheadline\">Thibaut Courtois is also a playmaker<\/h2>\n<p>The first of Fede Valverde&#8217;s three first-half goals against Manchester City came from an assist from Courtois. Yes, the pass from the Real Madrid goalkeeper set up the goal, giving him his second assist of the season in the UEFA Champions League.<\/p>\n<p>Thibaut Courtois became the first goalkeeper in Champions League history to record two assists in the same season after providing a pass for Kylian Mbapp against FC Kairat Almaty on 30 September and assisting Fede Valverde against Manchester City in the Champions League round of 16.<\/p>\n<p>In an even more surprising perspective, the Belgian international has provided more assists in this season&#8217;s Champions League than Rafinha, one of FC Barcelona&#8217;s stars, a statistic that has caused much debate among Real Madrid and Barcelona fans.<\/p>\n<p>Real Madrid, who won 3-0 at the Santiago Bernab\u00e9, will hope to seal their place in the Champions League quarter-finals on March 17, when Carlo Ancelotti&#8217;s side travel to Manchester to face Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.marca.com\/en\/football\/champions-league\/2026\/03\/12\/69b22b87e2704e59248b4579.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>IIt&#8217;s not just a matter of a few games, or just this one season. The truth is that Thibaut Courtois has been one of Real Madrid&#8217;s best players for quite some time and is another great success story for club president Florentino Preez. Every time he comes under pressure, the Belgian goalkeeper reacts inside the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-25839","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-latest"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why Thibaut Courtois humiliated Rafinha with his assist to Valverde in the Champions League - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/13\/why-thibaut-courtois-humiliated-rafinha-with-his-assist-to-valverde-in-the-champions-league\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Thibaut Courtois humiliated Rafinha with his assist to Valverde in the Champions League - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"IIt&#8217;s not just a matter of a few games, or just this one season. The truth is that Thibaut Courtois has been one of Real Madrid&#8217;s best players for quite some time and is another great success story for club president Florentino Preez. Every time he comes under pressure, the Belgian goalkeeper reacts inside the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/13\/why-thibaut-courtois-humiliated-rafinha-with-his-assist-to-valverde-in-the-champions-league\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-13T03:27:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin_ok9yktt6\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin_ok9yktt6\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/13\/why-thibaut-courtois-humiliated-rafinha-with-his-assist-to-valverde-in-the-champions-league\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/13\/why-thibaut-courtois-humiliated-rafinha-with-his-assist-to-valverde-in-the-champions-league\/\",\"name\":\"Why Thibaut Courtois humiliated Rafinha with his assist to Valverde in the Champions League - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/13\/why-thibaut-courtois-humiliated-rafinha-with-his-assist-to-valverde-in-the-champions-league\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/13\/why-thibaut-courtois-humiliated-rafinha-with-his-assist-to-valverde-in-the-champions-league\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/17732841272313.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-13T03:27:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6b2ade58a96ab056f743f12490573ae9\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/13\/why-thibaut-courtois-humiliated-rafinha-with-his-assist-to-valverde-in-the-champions-league\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/13\/why-thibaut-courtois-humiliated-rafinha-with-his-assist-to-valverde-in-the-champions-league\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/13\/why-thibaut-courtois-humiliated-rafinha-with-his-assist-to-valverde-in-the-champions-league\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/17732841272313.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/17732841272313.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":800},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/13\/why-thibaut-courtois-humiliated-rafinha-with-his-assist-to-valverde-in-the-champions-league\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Why Thibaut Courtois humiliated Rafinha with his assist to Valverde in the Champions League\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/\",\"name\":\"EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\",\"description\":\"EPL VIP is your ultimate source for all things related to the English Premier League. 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