Written By: Fahad Farooq
Edited By: Cameron Schoffro
Real Madrid vs PSG: A magical European night at the Bernabéu
“Ninety minutes in the Bernabéu is a very long time.” once said Real Madrid’s legendary player, Juanito. This quote couldn’t have proved to be more true in the second leg of the round-of-16 matchup between Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain as the Los Blancos produced a historic performance coming back from being two goals down and progressing onto the quarter-finals stage.
Real Madrid arrived at the Santiago Bernabéu with a 0–1 disadvantage, and things were looking bleak for them during the first half. Kylian Mbappé, who found himself on the end of a 1v1 against David Alaba scored with a clinical near-post finish to put PSG up 0–2 on the aggregate right before the end of the first half. It seemed as if it would take a miracle for Madrid to come back from this situation. But this is the magic of the Bernabéu, it makes miracles happen.
Let’s take a tactical look at how Real Madrid was able to turn the tide.
Starting XI
Carlo Ancelotti had his XI-men lineup resembling a 4–3–3 on paper. Eder Militão and David Alaba as the centre-back partnership while Nacho and Dani Carvajal were the full-backs. Toni Kroos started as a holding midfielder behind Luka Modrić and Fede Valverde who were playing as box-to-box CMs. Lastly, the front three consisted of Vinicius Jr. on the left-wing, Karim Benzema as the False 9 and Marco Asensio on the right-wing.
First-Half Defensive Struggles
Carlo Ancelotti deployed a high-pressing scheme to defend against PSG, which made sense since Real Madrid needed a goal to come back. Therefore, a defensive/conservative approach similar to the first leg wasn’t feasible.
In the following illustration, it can be seen that Asensio constantly drifted centrally towards Benzema which meant Carvajal had to push up and provide width on the right-wing. Unfortunately, this left a lot of space for Mbappé to exploit on the right flank behind the defensive line. Militão was often left alone to defend Mbappé 1v1. However, Courtois did a great job saving Mbappé’s shots on target, which, on any other day, could’ve been a goal or two.
In another defending sequence as seen in the image below, Mbappé drifted inwards at times to drag Carvajal with him. This allowed Nuno Mendes, PSG’s left-back, to make overlapping runs to combine with Mbappé and create dangerous scoring opportunities. Ideally, in this scenario, Asensio should be tracking back to help Carvajal with defending the LW-LB combination. Therefore, his low defensive work rate hurt Real Madrid in the first half. PSG did score as a result of this, but it was called offside.
However, PSG eventually succeeded through this pattern of play. By doing so, they put Real Madrid at a 0–2 disadvantage right before the end of the first half. During the 39th minute, Carvajal conceded possession in PSG’s half, Neymar recovered the possession and pinged the ball long over Militão into the space behind him, which Mbappé looked to take advantage of using his outstanding pace and precisely finished it off by attacking the near-post.
Substitutions
As the first half ended, it was evident that a change was needed. Something different was required from Carlo Ancelotti. Around the 58th minute mark, Rodrygo was substituted for Asensio, while Camavinga was substituted for Kroos. The changes were perfectly justified as Asensio was stagnant defensively while not providing much on the offensive end either. Additionally, Madrid could get some help from an energetic Camavinga off the bench.
These substitutions played an important role in the comeback, particularly Rodrygo. Rodrygo was able to provide width on the right-wing, which meant the right-back (Carvajal) could sit deeper and shift his focus more towards guarding Mbappé. Additionally, Rodrygo provided the much-needed defensive work rate on the right flank, which was crucial for pressing PSG’s players. Unsurprisingly, the third goal was essentially a product of Rodrygo’s pressing.
Taking over from Kroos, Camavinga did a great job playing the holding midfielder position. Defensively, he was very strong with his tackles and was able to recover possession at times. Offensively, he would distribute the ball to either wing with his accurate passing and play through PSG’s press with ease using his elite ball-carrying ability.
It is no coincidence that Real Madrid’s first goal of the comeback came four minutes after these substitutions were made.
La Remontada ‘The Comeback’
Real Madrid’s pressing caused PSG a lot of trouble and eventually won them the game as it was evident throughout the build-up of all of Madrid’s goals. Although, the players weren’t able to maintain the same intensity of energetic pressing throughout the game, especially within the first half. The substitutions brought a wave of energy and a momentum shift.
Real Madrid’s first goal was essentially a result of their aggressive pressing which PSG could not cope with. In the 61st minute, Fede Valverde pressed Marco Verratti as a result of which he was forced to pass the ball back to their centre-back, Kimpembe who subsequently passed it back to Donnarumma, PSG’s goalkeeper. Benzema saw this as an opportunity to aggressively press Donnarumma and ultimately forced a misplaced pass in the penalty box for Vinicius to pick it up. Vinicius made a great run to pick up the ball and eventually cut it back towards Benzema to score a high probability tap-in.
After the first goal, PSG had lost a complete sense of control in the game. They struggled to cope with Real Madrid’s press and therefore their ability to build out from the back diminished.
We can’t discuss the second goal without mentioning the eternal excellency of Luka Modrić. At 36 years of age, Modrić turned it up a notch, absolutely dominating PSG’s midfield. He was everywhere on the pitch, offensively and defensively. The following are some statistics to show he was getting done on both ends of the match (stats were taken from FBREF.com):
Progressive passes + carries: 13
Key Passes: 1 (1 Assist)
Completed passes into the final 1/3: 8
Successful tackles (4/4)
Ball recoveries: 9
The second goal perfectly summed up Modric’s two-way performance. To start, he intercepts a PSG pass in Madrid’s half and carries the ball towards the half-line through a swarm of PSG players before accurately releasing the ball into the space left behind Danilo for Vinicius to run into, a constant offensive pattern that Madrid took advantage of.
Seconds later, he presented himself as a receiving option at the top of the box and threaded an elegant pass through Kimpembe’s legs for Benzema to slot it in and score the second goal.
PSG had completely lost concentration and control over the game, and the Bernabéu atmosphere didn’t help either. Ten seconds later, after PSG resumed the match through kick-off, Rodrygo, the substitute, was able to force PSG to concede possession and quickly looked to progress the ball towards Vinicius. Vinicius, once again, exploiting the space left behind Danilo on the left flank received the ball. Marquinhos was able to neutralize Vinicius, however, wasn’t able to properly clear out the ball which ended up in front of Benzema’s foot who was able to shoot it into the bottom-right corner. The comeback was complete.
Fittingly with the comeback, Benzema also completed his hat-trick, becoming the oldest player in the Champions League history to do so. The record-breaking didn’t just stop there, he overtook the legendary Alfredo di Stefano to become Real Madrid’s third highest goal scorer of all time as well.
In just 17 minutes, Real Madrid had completed one of the most spectacular Champions League comebacks ever. It was a sight to behold, a moment straight out of a storybook.
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