Frequent fall guy Navas silences doubters with prodigious performance

Real Madrid supporters can be a fickle bunch.

Even with two Champions League titles on the spin and a third on the horizon, many among the Real faithful, Los Blancos president Florentino Perez included, have temperamental tendencies.

Cristiano Ronaldo was the subject of whistles at the Santiago Bernabeu a year ago and Gareth Bale was booed during a group stage tilt with Apoel. Even current Real gaffer and club legend Zinedine Zidane drew the ire of supporters during the latter stages of his time in the Spanish capital.

Such are the perils of a fan base acclimated to perennial success on the continent, where one world-class player can be replaced by another, no talent too immense for the hallowed confines of the famed Bernabeu or too expensive for Perez's signature.

No player among Zidane's current squad has received as much criticism as first-choice shot-stopper Keylor Navas.

A two-time winner of the Champions League following a move from Levante in 2014, the Costa Rican international was tasked with filling Iker Casilla's boots. With cries for a Spanish 'keeper in the capital a common chorus among Real supporters, Navas' move to Madrid has always had the feel of a short-lived spell.

Each infrequent error again spurs talk of David De Gea's return to Spain or prompts timely quotes from Thibaut Courtois expressing his desire to return to La Liga, or more recently, talk of the club's interest in Athletic Bilbao's Kepa Arrizabalaga.

For all the attention paid to a robust three-man midfield and Ronaldo's penchant for dominance on the continent, against Bayern Munich on Tuesday, Navas was the difference.

The 31-year-old set a career standard with eight stops, but it was the nature of the saves and their magnitude that made Navas so decisive. With Toni Kroos uncharacteristically off the pace and Sergio Ramos out of position on numerous occasions, Navas was busier than usual. His virtues were on full display in the 33rd minute when he thwarted a close-range effort from Robert Lewandowski, and again after the interval when David Alaba's screaming strike was parried out of play.

With Bayern on the front foot amid waves of pressure, Navas did it again in the 74th minute when Corentin Tolisso appeared to have a certain goal denied by the lunging shot-stopper, and again in the closing moments when Sandro Wagner's incisive pass found Lewandowski in heaps of space, only for Navas to again stymie the Polish talisman with a diving save.

For now, Navas' most recent stellar performance will keep speculation at bay, though it's only a matter of time before one of Europe's marquee 'keepers is linked with a move to Real.

"I've always got the best players so you can ask any question you like but I've got Keylor and, for me, he's the best," Zidane said at a press conference in October.

Few will understand the fickle impulses of Real Madrid supporters more than Zidane, and for Navas, the gaffer's opinion should be the only one that matters ahead of a third successive European final.