Real Madrid beat Borussia Dortmund 3-2 to set up a semi-final date with PSG in the Club World Cup on Saturday. Goals from Gonzalo Garcia (again), Fran Garcia and Kylian Mbappe solidified the win after a very chaotic last few minutes.

Here are three observations from the win.

Aurelien Tchouameni makes Real Madrid tick

Five games in, and it seems more than apparent that Aurelien Tchouameni is a cornerstone for Xabi Alonso. Real Madrid have needed him in several games to clear out multiple fires while also helping them control the game at a brilliant level, and Tchouameni has quietly put together one of his best five-game stretches of his entire career.

Tchouameni has been great in 2025 to begin with, but it seems like under Alonso, with who he shares his kit number and position, the Frenchman has taken it up a notch. Tchouameni was once again instrumental against Dortmund, and this was another great game under Alonso, as well as in a controlling sense.

Tchouameni’s positioning was excellent. He helped Real Madrid control the game very well next to Arda Guler, and he knew where to pass the ball and when to do so. It wasn’t at a freakish volume like Toni Kroos used to, but Tchouameni, in his way, made Real Madrid tick against Dortmund.

So many excellent last-ditch interventions, combined with great positioning in and around his own box, helped balance Real Madrid’s team. His position is a crucial one, and Tchouameni played his role to perfection.

After the game, Alonso had similar views. He said: “Our system today was defined by Aurélien Tchouaméni. We let him analyze what’s needed and decide where he needs to be.In some sequences, he played high, and in others, he dropped low in a back 5. He did it really, really well.”

Those are not light words. Tchouameni looks like a different beast now, even by the standards he has set for himself in 2025. All he needs is consistency and the type of confidence Alonso is giving him to become a great at Real Madrid.

Real Madrid look good, and Fran Garcia’s re-emergence

Real Madrid look like a different team these days. Many fans of the team watch different games of different teams, and they watch them counter-press, win the ball in dangerous areas, build out beautifully from the back, and accept it as the norm. And yet, when Real Madrid start doing that, it almost feels like they’ve not seen anything like it.

It has been so long since Real Madrid had a proper structure in every game, a collective idea and identity (at least from game to game), and just a designated role for every player on the pitch. No shade on Carlo Ancelotti, but since Alonso has come in, we have seen a wide variety of these systems, and slowly but surely, we see improvements in every single match. After every match, there is a bit of improvement in some regard.

Against Dortmund, it was their build-up and structure for 80 minutes. The way they defended as a unit, and the way they built out from the back and broke Dortmund’s press with quick passing and brilliant off-ball runs, it was like a piece of art. It was the best 80 minutes of Alonso’s Real Madrid, and it was very fun to watch.

Alonso had a player occupying every zone on the pitch. Wherever the ball went, Real Madrid had it back in no time. Honestly, they should have had a couple more goals, because they kept creating chances at will and recycling possession whenever they lost it.

Fran Garcia, in particular, was immense. Real Madrid wanted a left-back who would do exactly what Garcia showed against Dortmund. He has been pretty good against every team this season, but against Dortmund, he felt like the Garcia of old. The Garcia who carried Rayo Vallecano’s offense as a left-back. Frankly, it was exceptional to watch him play that way on Saturday.

This system suits him perfectly. It gives him a lot of freedom to run at opponents, as there is proper coverage behind him. Every time. Slotting into a pseudo back-five of sorts helps him more than most, as he has help defense on the left, which was sorely lacking earlier this season.

Garcia is good, and Real Madrid are playing well. It feels like a dream to watch the team that made fans want to break their monitor play this way. It’s good.

The chaos ensues

It would not be a classic Real Madrid performance if there were no chaos after 80 great minutes. Real Madrid were 2-0 up, and were showing no signs of slowing down; everything pointed towards a two-goal win and a clean sheet, too.

However, they quickly conceded one. Kylian Mbappe had a brilliant reply to it just seconds later with an acrobatic effort. Minutes later, Dean Huijsen — Real Madrid’s most reliable centre-back since joining the club — gave away a careless penalty and earned a needless red card in the process, putting Real Madrid to the test in the last few minutes of the game.

It took an otherworldly save — so good that it deserves an article of its own — from Thibaut Courtois to keep the match in Real Madrid’s favour, seconds before the referee blew the final whistle.

First of all, thank God for Courtois. And second, it showed that while Huijsen is an amazing football player, there are still some things he needs to learn.

Alonso’s response to this was mature and expected: “We celebrate that we’re in the semi-finals, but it’s good that the last minutes happened so that we can be alert next time.”

It does leave the Real Madrid manager with a headache: Does he go for Tchouameni as a centre-back for better build-up, with the risk of getting dominated in midfield? Or does he go for Tchouameni in midfield, but lose out on a lot of ball-playing from deep?

Big decisions await for Alonso ahead of his biggest test as Real Madrid boss.