Real Madrid, Marcelo Slammed by Steve McManaman, Roy Keane After Wolfsburg Loss

Former Real Madrid midfielder Steve McManaman labelled Los Blancos' performance "woeful" after their 2-0 defeat to Wolfsburg in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final on Wednesday.  

The BT Sport pundit particularly highlighted Real's disastrous defending and questioned how Zinedine Zidane's side could go from beating Barcelona on Saturday to losing so convincingly at the Volkswagen Arena, per MailOnline's Anthony Hay:

"

I thought they were woeful, I really did. From the highs of getting a good result on Saturday to really low lows tonight.

Defensively the right back (Danilo) and left back (Marcelo) were just all over the place, coupled with Pepe and (Sergio) Ramos who looked like they hadn't played with each other before. I was astounded as to how bad they were. I expected a real calm, measured performance as well. 

It was like schoolboy, Under 10s or Under 12s defending. Marcelo walks across with his arms behind his back [for Wolfsburg's second goal] and (Maximilian) Arnold gets two yards ahead of Ramos.

It seems like the manager just prays on the sidelines that they get it together. It looks as if they just freestyle.

It just looks horrific. You can't blame the manager because he's just said to the same team which played against Barcelona on Saturday—apart from the right back Danilo—"go out and do it again".

"

Former Manchester United captain Roy Keane was also unimpressed, particularly with Marcelo's antics in a farcical confrontation with Maximilian Arnold, which the Irishman described as "shocking," per ITV (via Hay).

The left-back flicked his heel out at Arnold before brushing his stomach with his head and then going down seconds later clutching his face in somewhat embarrassing fashion, per BT Sport Football:

It was not the only thing Marcelo had cause to be red-faced about in Germany.

He was caught wildly out of position for Wolfsburg's potentially crucial second goal on 25 minutes, allowing Bruno Henrique acres of space on the right from which to feed the ball into the box for Arnold to turn home.

As McManaman noted, though, he was not the only one at fault, as Real's centre-backs were fooled too easily by a simple run from the midfielder.

And Bleacher Report's Sam Tighe picked out right-back Danilo for special criticism after the game following his schooling by Julian Draxler:

The first goal for the hosts came via a Ricardo Rodriguez penalty in the 17th minute, conceded when Casemiro downed Andre Schurrle in the box.

The result leaves Real with a mountain to climb if they are to qualify from the tie to the semi-finals.

They will have a significant advantage in next week's second leg at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, but an early goal will be a must for Los Blancos to calm the nerves.

When the quarter-final draw was made, the prevailing response was that Real had got lucky to draw a side who are currently eighth in the Bundesliga.

But Dieter Hecking's men proved on Wednesday evening that they are a force to be reckoned with, and they have given themselves an excellent chance of causing a major upset, per ESPN's Paul Carr:

Real have the attacking talent to overturn the 2-0 deficit in Madrid, but the defence has to improve dramatically for the second leg.