Courtois: this Real Madrid player is a beast, and Espanyol should look in the mirror

The Belgian goalkeeper criticised the Catalan side

Thibaut Courtois hailed young forward Carlos Espi after his decisive contribution to Real Madrid's 2-1 win over Espanyol on Saturday, the Belgian goalkeeper watching Espi fire home the winner in the 90th minute of this second-round La Liga clash.

The Belgian also hit out at what he called unfair treatment of teammate Vinicius Junior, insisting Espanyol's Cala deserved to be sent off.

Turning to the Espanyol players' clashes with Vinicius, Courtois told reporters after the match: "Cala should have been sent off earlier, whether for his kick on Vinicius Junior or his challenge on Carreras, after he was already carrying a yellow card."

"As for Espanyol, you should look at yourselves in the mirror first before talking about others," he continued. "It is very easy to judge things when you only look at them from one side."

Espi came on as a substitute in the 80th minute, and Courtois could not speak highly enough of him. "He's a beast, sometimes I see him getting into duels with Konate and Rudiger during training. It's really impressive, we are very happy for him. The impact of the player coming off the bench can be just as strong as the impact of the players who start the match."

Then came the joke. "We call him Joselu Junior," the goalkeeper added, a nod to former Real Madrid forward Joselu and his knack for decisive contributions off the bench.