Analysis: Real Madrid vs Manchester City Tactical Showdown in the Champions League Semi-Finals

Real Madrid and Manchester City will meet again in the CL semi-final stage following last season. What kind of tactical offense and defense unfolded on the pitch in the clash between the teams at the highest level in Europe? Mr. Raikarto unravels.

Last year’s tournament winnerreal madridhave been somewhat shaky in the league, but have remained strong in the cup. While their fear lies in the range of tactics that can be used in all directions, there are also sections that accept high-risk, high-return counters from withdrawal defense. If Sergio Ramos, CB’s qualitative superiority strategy that has continued since the Pepe era and the “reproducibility without reproducibility” that GK Thibaut Courtois keeps stopping anyway do not work, the risk may increase.

On the other hand, the demon of the league match who has won the Premier League four times in the past five seasonsmanchester city. Towards the long-awaited CL victory,holding the ball? what is that?The city that finally plunged into the state, just can’t pretend to be! I feel like I’m screaming

Guardiola, who has been in possession of the ball since his time in Barcelona, ​​is in a sense “cursed”, but after the curse has been lifted, he faces the opponent with whom he played many famous matches during his time in Barcelona. The story of Real Madrid, which seems to have already answered the Zen question, “What is Narifuri?”

Pressing that gradually disappears

It was City who showed an insatiable desire to win the Champions League. Even if the ball is lost, Rodri will soon regain it, and Courtois’ turn will increase. He managed to show a very City-like development from the beginning at the Santiago Bernabéu.

In the 3rd minute, Real Madrid showed a difficult-to-explain pressure avoidance, but were unable to let go of the ball against City’s pressure. The attitude to do seemed to symbolize exactly what Real Madrid is. If it was an ordinary team, it would be a long ball.

Real Madrid responded without raising the line against City’s kick-off. The wariness of Erling Holland was the greatest. Antonio Rudiger and David Alaba responded to the Norwegian national team FW without deciding man marks. There were many match-up opportunities with Rudiger in terms of position, but it seemed that the ball was often deployed from the side of Manuel Akanji. On the other hand, Holland didn’t show any signs of picking off Alaba, who had a higher advantage in height, so it wasn’t a matchup that was particularly conscious of each other.

With City in possession of the ball, Real Madrid will have more opportunities to retreat. Vinicius Junior is famous for staying out of the attack, but on this day Vinicius often fell back despite being unstable. The scene where Kyle Walker passed Bernardo Silva with the ball may have been City’s plan to keep Vinicius out of the defense, but Luka Modric and Alaba supported left-back Eduardo Eduardo. Pep Guardiola may well have miscalculated that Camavinga’s dominating performance stood in the way.

One of the points of the game was how City thought about having the ball at Real Madrid. As it turns out, City didn’t press much against Courtois, but they did press high with a 4-4-2. If you go to steal the ball from the front, the opponent may avoid it with a long ball. If so, the game could be open. But that’s what John Stones, Akanji, Ruben Diaz and Walker are for. He probably didn’t think it was a good idea to have the ball at Real Madrid given the cost of getting it back. So City basically adopted high pressing.

However, the pressure was not enough. Real Madrid, who have a reputation for rolling the ball calmly, have Toni Kroos in a standing position to keep Kevin De Bruyne and Haaland in check, while Courtois, Alaba and Rudiger roll the ball endlessly and aim for a chance to advance. City’s Rodri Ilkay Gundogan certainly didn’t dare to travel to Kroos, and of course Real Madrid weren’t surprised by the lackluster pressure.

In the 11th minute, City changed their pressing to 4-4-1-1. This gave De Bruyne a cross, but the situation with the ball made Alaba lively, albeit for a limited time. Real Madrid’s time starts here… or so I thought, but it’s interesting because Real Madrid suddenly start throwing long balls in rapid succession. ……

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Rai Cart

Born in Showa and raised in Heisei, Urawa. As a leader of the soccer tactical analysis blog “I will keep in mind interesting tactical analysis of soccer”, despite being a coach, I started contributing articles to various media such as “footballista” and “Football Criticism” because of his unique narrative style. popular blogger. Writing is very educational for him, so deep down in his heart, he hopes that other managers and coaches will join him. His favorite band is New Order from Manchester. He is the author of the book “Analysis Eye: I will teach you how to analyze interesting tactics of soccer” (Shogakukan).