Tactical Analysis : Manchester City 1-1 Real Madrid | How Ancelotti Beat Pep |

Real Madrid's Champions League magic continues as Los Blancos eliminated City at home to advance to the Champions League semi-finals, but was this a stroke of managerial genius on Angelotti's part or did they take the Green issue away ? Let's examine this starting with City. with the ball while dominating it when City were in deeper phases of the game, they used a more traditional back four, either with Aangi still pushing towards midfield and Edison as the fourth defender or with Ki staying in this zone more traditional in these phases. would back up that pressing, meaning Madrid's pressing pattern could be unbalanced, as Valverde often looked to hide.

This was very effective from Madrid, particularly when they were able to prevent City from playing up the field primarily through one of the forwards and then looking to pick. up as the deepest man while the other looks to pick up the central defender, making it difficult for City to find a man; However, committing so many men to the left side also left Madrid vulnerable on the occasions when City were able to find their way. On the pitch, they were able to break through the press, especially when City passed the ball to Vardal who would then take Valde out of his midfield position and now, with Rodrigo Bellingham and Venicius often still caught high by the press, City could Make the most of your three. versus two in midfield, particularly when rre took the ball and ultimately allowed City to advance up the pitch almost unopposed in more controlled phases of play.

City used their now familiar box three with the aim of overloading Real Madrid both in the backline and in defence. just as midfielder Angelotti often doesn't get credit for his

tactical

setup, but we saw his defensive shape change from that crooked 433 to a much narrower 442 which could actually be seen as a 424 with the front four operating extremely narrow, giving them gave a lot of advantages, the narrow gaps between the front four made playing through these central zones almost impossible and this was compounded by the fact that both Venicius and Bellingham were able to use their Cover Shadows in that double pivot that is crucial for City to start the play. still giving them the ability to continue with the press while positioning the released forwards of Kaminga and Tony Crose to track these men in a more man-oriented manner when necessary, Pep had some answers of his own on both the right and On the left side, both led by their free eight on the right, De Bruo would look to move outwards from the start to receive outside this tight Madrid block, but as discussed, Kos would have more freedom to follow his man out. , meaning De Bruyne wouldn't have done it.

Pep gave Akanji time and space a lot of responsibility in the attacking phase as every time this happened it was up to him to move away from his man in Venicius and occupy these more attacking midfield positions and this would leave Tony Crow with a huge dilemma. . If he stayed limited in one kanji, then De Bruo would get that space on the right side that he so craved, but what we saw most often was Crow being dragged out, meaning that the akanji can be found in this region, However, Akanji is a Central defender, so we saw many occasions where he received in potential space, but the orientation of his body meant he was not prepared to turn and attack the Real Madrid goal, which allowed the Real Madrid recovered just in time but whenever he was facing goal we saw him be extremely dangerous as it could be a foot race between Bruyne and Kos as Foden dragged Meny meaning Aangi could look for De Bruyne in the half space where he could then look for the cross and City got into threatening positions like this, but couldn't.

Don't count down, left side Valde could be much more aggressive in trying to close down his man on Vardal and every time this happened it created opportunities for City as Bernardo Sila was extremely mobile looking for any pocket behind Valde that he could look. to exploit and although Kinger could keep his man he also freed up the one on one opportunity for Greish and in the first half Cy looked to find him time and time again, this gave City options as Greish could go one on one against Carvajal and we often saw him probing in these positions but he was never able to find his preferred cross at the back post towards Harland, but a dangerous secondary option for this was the half-space often run by Bernardo Silva, who Greish looked to find over and over again as I could.

Look for the center with your strong foot and City almost get into scoring positions like this. These One on One isolations happened so frequently since that Bas mid-career that he brought to dku since one on ones are his and kajal's specialty. was on a booking with kajal on a booking we saw Valde look to cover deep much more often but this was not always possible and the threat of dhu opened even bigger gaps for City to look to find their men in crossing positions but also Better at 1v1 meant he could

real

ly take on his man and this even led to City's goal looking as dangerous in transition as ever because City pushed their defensive line extremely high to keep the gaps between their defense and the midfield and the midfield and forwards were extremely small, so they could easily look to counterattack, the only problem with this is that Real Madrid's threat in transition was such that every time they took the ball, if any of these three men of the front ran behind City, they instantly dropped deeper and This would create huge gaps between the defense and midfield, so Real still had the option of hitting their men directly behind, as the 1 V pace was still in their favor , or a man in the abyss between defense and midfield and then watching. for the runner, which means that on another day Real would have scored a goal in transition.

Madrid's game plan meant they didn't have much of the ball, but what do they do when they had it in controlled possession once again? Real's objective was to expose City's high line and this could be done by playing directly as long as both Bellingham and Valde are physical enough, if not to win the ball, at least give their man problems and try to win the second ball, but in open play the center backs would divide. The goalkeeper's side and City looked to force Real to play on one side of the pitch and this was having Harland aggressively, Mark Nacho with De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva supporting the press.

What this would now mean is that the obvious way out was Rudiger. However, Greish often occupied this position ready to cover for both Rudiger and Carbajal if the goalkeeper's ball went over the top. However, Greish couldn't always recover in time after lifting Rudiger and in those scenarios the responsibility fell to Guardal. to cover the map and this would mean a huge danger for the

city

as it actually operates effectively with a front 2 meaning they could have a four on three advantage with Rodry looking to cover and as discussed have plenty of runners willing behind and willing to show towards the ball would cause all sorts of problems for the City back line and this led to Real's goal as we see Gardio pushing up to put pressure on Carvajal leaving Diaz to cover his man.

Bellingham and Venicius are running as usual and Valde attracts Diaz giving Bellingham space. Finally, Valdé was able to keep Díaz out of position, allowing Rodrigo to reach the far post to end Madrid's Champions League victory. Giants against Buing, but who do you see passing at that stage? Leave it down for the

tactical

trainer. Pep's school plans were for the most part effective with City dominating the ball and getting chances with poor finishing that let them down, but

real

, as always, they looked deadly. at halftime, meaning pep gets a 7.5 while angelotti gets a 6.5, but lower your ratings below