Real Madrid are cursing having missed out on Erling Haaland last summer after Karim Benzema’s no-show in their semi-final humiliation at the hands of Manchester City.
Haaland didn’t find the net over the two legs but only the performance of Thibaut Courtois prevented him from scoring a hat-trick in the second game, while Benzema was anonymous over 180 minutes.
Madrid will sign a centre-forward this summer to compete with the Frenchman but are ruing their decision last year to not fight for Haaland’s signature, instead putting all their focus on Kylian Mbappe.
Haaland’s father and agent Alfie included Madrid on his whistle-stop tour of top European clubs in the build-up to the player’s move from Borussia Dortmund but they ruled out trying to compete with Manchester City for his signature because they were convinced Mbappe had run his contract down at PSG to the join them on a free at the start of this season.