Gonzalo García downs Juventus to send Real Madrid to Club World Cup quarters

• Last 16: Real Madrid 1-0 Juventus (G García 54)

• Mbappé makes first appearance of tournament

Kylian Mbappé at last made his debut at this Club World Cup as the competition entered the knockout phase, coming on to face Juventus two weeks and four games after he was admitted to hospital with a stomach virus that led to him losing five kilos. But while the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami chanted the Frenchman’s name, roaring as he made his way to the halfway line, and stood to hand him an ovation when he entered the fray, the excitement overflowing, it was the kid heading in the other direction, for whom Rita Hayworth is family but most of them had not heard of a month ago, who had taken Real Madrid into the quarter-final.

For all the focus on the most famous names, for all that this month, this experimental event, needs them, every tournament has its revelation: this World Cup has a 21-year-old madrileño. “I knew this competition was the opportunity of my life,” Gonzalo García said after he again showed that it is one he is determined, and equipped, to take hold of. The Real Madrid academy striker, who had never started a game before arriving in the United States, scored his third goal here with a superb thumping header from a delicious Trent Alexander-Arnold delivery, doing what no one else could over 90 minutes here: beating the Juventus goalkeeper Michele Di Gregorio. Continue reading...