Real Madrid 2-1 Juventus: Tactical Analysis

Juventus Trying To Cross

Conte probably identified a weakness of the Real Madrid back-line when it came to dealing with crosses and cut backs. The Old Lady was ruthless in trying to exploit the failings of Marcelo and Arbeloa. Over the course of the game, Juventus managed to make 17 cross attempts, and of these, 14 came in the first 45 minutes, when both teams had 11 men on the pitch. They did so in a systematic manner, with different types of set ups leading to the ball into the box.

Juventus Crossesvia squawka.com

For the crosses that came from open play, most were aimed at the back post, with the intention of getting one of their players competing for an aerial ball with the opposition full back. In order to get the man on the ball space, the use of dummy runners was employed on some occasions. The full backs generally served as dummy runners, and the ploy was used only when the midfielders who were in wide areas had the ball. When the full backs were on it, they tried to cross the ball early and from deep positions. From corner kicks, the ball to the far post was abandoned, and Juventus tried to fire the ball across goal, mainly looking for someone at the near post.

Overloading Tactic

Playing in an unfamiliar formation, Juventus retained one main principle of the 3-5-2, and that was to keep overloads in the central area of the pitch. Of course, the problem for Conte arose naturally when he tried to accomplish this, but attack Madrid from the flanks with crosses. To solve thhe conundrum, the movement of players was used. When Juventus had the ball on the left side of the pitch, for example, the left sided midfielder, Pogba, shifted out onto the wing. This meant that along with Ogbonna, was also present, ensuring that the wing was occupied by 2 players. Tevez, who was out on the left while defending, cut into the middle enough to become the supporting striker to Llorente. On the other side, instead of staying wide, Marchisio cut inside significantly enough to be labelled a central midfielder. This meant that Juventus still had 3 (Pirlo, Marchisio, Vidal) in the middle of the park, and had a double advantage on the wing. When the ball was shifted over to the right hand side, the same routine was repeated, with the roles being reversed, and Caceres serving as the full back pushing forward.

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Shape And Plan After Red Card

Giorgio Chiellini really let his team down on the night, getting sent off after conceding a silly penalty kick. This left Juventus with a considerable challenge. Once the red card was handed out to the Italian, Juventus shifted their shape to a 4-4-1, Tevez playing as the lone striker. Llorente, and soon Pirlo too were taken off. The rationale behind these moves was to remove the players whose work rate wasn’t as high as necessary when playing with 10 men. Pogba moved to the right, and Marchisio and Vidal covered the centre, as the substitute Kwadwo Asamoah came on to patrol the left flank. Later on, Asamoah shifted into left back, as Juventus moved to a 4-3-1-1. The central midfield trio sat in front of the defence, and Giovinco played centrally, to provide attacking thrust alongside Carlos Tevez.

The plan from Conte was to see out the first 15 or so minutes without incident, to allow Juventus to settle to the pattern of the game, and not let it fly away from them, as a goal from Real could have finished the game right there. After this period, the team began to attack more, as Real also began to tire, and let their concentration down. A number of the Juventus attacks came from Real carelessly giving the ball away to them.

Conclusion

Juventus came into the game with a strong plan of how to go about it, and carried it out well too. They were let down by a couple of moments of poor decision making. Real on the other hand made slight tweaks to their usual game, and rode the brilliance of Ronaldo. Ancelotti has every reason to be disappointed with the performance his team put in, but will be very pleased with the result they came out with, as the Los Blancos have virtually sealed their place in the next round with 9 points out of 9.