The Champions League resumed during the midweek as Real Madrid and AS Roma locked horns at the Santiago Bernabeu. In the end, it was Los Blancos who moved into the last eight of the UEFA Champions League with a 2-0 win as Cristiano Ronaldo and James Rodriguez grabbed the all-important goals to complete a 4-0 aggregate victory.
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In truth, the result was a flattering one for the home side who weren’t allowed to impose themselves on the game the way their fans would have expected thanks to a gutsy display by the Serie A club.
Luciano Spalletti will surely rue the loss and although the frustration and dissatisfaction will last for a few days, the fans shouldn’t feel too downhearted at the result considering how impressive an account the players gave over the course of the two legs. Nevertheless, this was Madrid’s night so let’s dissect just how Zinedine Zidane earned the second UCL win of his managerial career.
Ineffective Roma throw chances away
Before the match, any premonitions of a visiting player receiving a standing ovation might have excited the travelling contingent of a potential fightback, but the reality was a heck of a lot different as it was merely the introduction of Francesco Totti with the contest already over that drew the biggest applause for anything Roma-related.
In the end, it was the same old story for I Giallorossi as they floundered on the big stage. Losing against Real now means they have failed to make it beyond the round of the last 16 in four of their last five seasons in the Champions League and Spalletti’s post-match comments reflected a real anger in yet another stumble:
We need to change our mentality after this game. We need to realise the kind of chance we threw away tonight.
The statistics don’t lie, and it’s not going to make for easy reading as they chalk down another early exit. Some will say they have nobody else to blame but themselves because they were incredibly wasteful with the opportunities they crafted while others will put it down to sheer misfortune. As it was the last time this pair met – at the Stadio Olimpico – Roma looked to attack down the flanks through Stephan El Shaarawy and Mohamed Salah as well as utilising the focal point of Edin Dzeko where possible to pressurise the opposition.
Again, they failed in their efforts to make the most of this tactic because although their approach play was well-executed and intelligently constructed, the end product wasn’t adequately polished. Time and again, their forages forward rewarded them with a promising stake deep in Madrid’s territory but no matter what they mustered in and around the 18-yard box, they simply couldn’t rustle the back of the net.
Their squandered chance in the 28th minute was typical of their evening. Ervin Zukanovic supplied Dzeko who then slipped the ball through to Salah, but the Egypt international couldn’t find the back of the net to ruin Keylor Navas’ night:
There was an air of sombre predictability about the chances that continued to come their way because the more they missed, the more the possibility of a dramatic comeback slipped further from their grasp. By the time the 51st minute drifted in front of our eyes to see Salah spurn another chance wide of the mark, it seemed inevitable that they would get punished for their severe lack of clinical finishing.
Madrid’s offensive class shines through
Coming to the Bernabeu is never an easy occasion to face – sometimes even if you’re a Madrid player. The fans are never afraid to get on the players’ backs and wave the infamous white handkerchiefs but this was a happy spectacle for Zidane’s charges as they accomplished a job they needed to, and even went one better by securing a win with two well-taken goals.
Unlike their competitors, they were good enough to rustle the net, although they weren’t economical with their shooting as this WhoScored statistic shows:
Nevertheless, Los Merengues were able to rely on their attackers to do their jobs. Ronaldo bagged his 90th UCL goal to remind us all why he is the greatest finisher the competition has yet seen, while James popped up with their second of the night to put the icing on the cake.
It was definitely a top-heavy performance as Zizou’s charges looked to rely on their ability to cause problems for Roma’s defence more often than their own back-line was breached.
The riskiness of the move paid off on the night as they made it through but it would have been interesting to see what might have happened had they not scored at home. Utilising the willingness of Marcelo to get down the left flank to infiltrate the defence didn’t work for long periods and it was only as Roma got more desperate for goals that things opened up for the home team’s attackers to exploit the space they needed.
In contrast to the reverse fixture, shooting from distance was a theme for Madrid on the night but it didn’t work for them at all and it was only when their world-class strikers started to receive good deliveries, with Roma tired and very stretched, that the scoreboard could finally change in their favour.
Zizou still has some defensive moulding to do
Pointing out that Madrid are the only club not to have conceded at home in this season’s edition of Europe’s best club tournament won’t do much to ease the supporters’ fears because against a more confident and assured attack, they more than likely wouldn’t have enjoyed such a result.
Simply put, it was too easy for the visitors to create chances against them on the night and La Magicca ripped through them so frequently, there were times a shock win looked on the cards – it wasn’t very Madrid-like, especially at home. Frankly, despite the four goals they pocketed this is a major cause for concern and it’s unlikely to go away the deeper they move into the latter stages.
Indeed, Zidane’s comments after the win, as relayed by Football Italia, are unlikely to be ones the Madridistas will appreciate all that much:
Perhaps it’s true we allowed too much at the back, but I had said it would be normal considering Roma have great players and were coming off seven consecutive Serie A victories
A mentality such as this one can prove highly dangerous, and it almost did during the week.
In possession, Madrid looked to move the ball with an air of authority, but they didn’t carry out their duties with any real speed or dangerous tempo, particularly in the final third, which definitely played into the hands of Roma who often had nine men behind the ball and were keen on over-crowding their penalty area. The industry of Spalletti’s rearguard and counter-attacking mindset caught the 10-time European Cup winners out on a number of occasions as they intercepted the slow build-up play, much like had occurred in the opening leg.
Effectively, defensive awareness needs to be drilled into Zizou’s players across the board because they were simply too porous in all departments, not simply at the back.
The fans can bask in the glory of another continental victory and for some it will be considered a job well done but Real look far from the European heavyweights they have always been and it’s going to take more than a couple of goals to paper over the revealing cracks symptomatic of a defensively unsound team.
