Frenkie de Jong marked by Luka Modric on quiet night
Luka Modric had the mission of stopping the Ajax midfielder, signed already by Barcelona
Few could imagine that a Ballon d'Or winner would be so alert to the actions of Frenkie de Jong. But that's what happened as Real Madrid played Ajax, with Croatian Luka Modric becoming an unexpected marker of the Barcelona signing, to the point where he was more focused on stopping De Jong than creating chances for Madrid.
It was an intense battle between the two of them - because De Jong had the job of stopping Modric too. That was more surprising on the Modric front though, who operated as part of a double pivot from the start.
The result was that they kept each other quiet. De Jong barely had the ball and when he escaped Modric he didn't feel comfortable. He lacked precision and on more than one occasion didn't find his desired team-mate with the ball.
Only after Karim Benzema's goal could be more liberated. He moved up the pitch a bit more, to the left interior position where Modric did not follow, and he had more of the ball. Madrid were disjointed and Ajax equalised, before Asensio's late winner.
It was not the best game from De Jong and he will not remember it fondly, especially as the referee didn't give a foul from Lucas Vazquez on him and it led to Madrid's winner.
