A Tactical Reflection Of Real Madrid’s Win Over Manchester City

Real Madrid’s 2 – 3 win at the Etihad on Tuesday night was the first time all season this author, at the final whistle, came away thinking ‘that was a really good performance’.

Is the bar low? Were there better performances? Yes, and probably not — not in a game of this magnitude, anyway. Despite Manchester City dragging themselves through a poor season and not being the juggernaut we’re used to seeing, Real Madrid were the better team and took care of business. When was the last time we reflected on a big game and thought highly of the collective performance in a big game?

Regardless of their struggles, City are no slouches, and this tie is far from over. Perhaps the performance on Tuesday night was the classic ‘it’s that time of year’ wake up call Real Madrid needed, but they could rue some of the chances they missed.

What was encouraging: The team generated a high enough volume of chances to score three goals despite missing some key opportunities, and the makeshift backline of Fede Valverde, Raul Asencio, Aurelien Tchouameni, and Ferland Mendy held it down with a terrific defensive performance (with special emphasis on another star-studded display from Asencio, and a big upgrade at right-back with Fede sliding in for Vazquez).

The team’s ball progression looked great, and Vinicius was in his Ballon D’or form. As Ancelotti put it, Eduardo Camavinga and Dani Ceballos were ‘outsanding’ (though I have some notes on Camavinga below), and Jude Bellingham put in a class, all-around, complete performance that only he can perform.

With the first leg done and dusted, here are three sub-headings from my notepad, before the dust settles for good and Real Madrid go back to the Bernabeu to defend their lead.

Escaping pressure at the Etihad

This was on my radar heading into the first leg: How would the team do under pressure? If you remember correctly (and if you were not traumatized by the amount of heart palpitations you suffered last season before Antonio Rüdiger saved your soul in the penalty shootout), Real Madrid were pinned for most of the game in the second leg of the 2024 Champions League semi-finals.

Toni Kroos was one of the unicorns who chilled his blood and helped Real Madrid survive that tsunami. How would it look without him?

There were a lot of impressive sequences:

That is a near two-minute sequence which illustrates good composure and patience by the team. City’s aim is to let Raul Asencio and Aurelien Tchouameni have the ball while they cut off passing lanes, daring Real Madrid’s center-backs to kick the ball long — likely out of bounds or straight to Ederson.

Real Madrid’s goal is to get the ball to Kylian Mbappe or Vinicius Jr in the opposing half. Everyone does a good job. The team circulates possession, rotating from one side to the other, until a passing avenue opens up. It eventually does, twice, to Mbappe. The build-up was well executed.

City are not what they used to be (more on that below), but hopefully Real Madrid can take some momentum from this round-of-16 tie, and use it as a launching pad — a turning point — to flip the season in their favour.

Eduardo Camavinga, development tracker

We’re in year four of Eduardo Camavinga at Real Madrid now. We should be seeing monumental strides from a player with freakish potential, both as an intelligent technical midfielder, and freak athlete.

He’s still not quite there. Injuries continue to pillage his body. Ancelotti has hesitated entrusting him with the same bonafide starter-status that the likes of Fede Valverde and Jude Bellingham have. Camavinga does incredible stuff every game he plays, but he also makes a lot of mistakes.

In a big win over Manchester City at the Etihad on Tuesday night, Camavinga had a nightmarish stretch (not quite on his Clasico-level horror show, but almost as disastrous had City been able to punish. In the span of about three minutes, he put his teammates under unnecessary pressure twice — forcing passes to them as they were heavily marked respectively. Real Madrid lost the ball on both occasions below. City broke free in transition. A simple safe pass would’ve sufficed.

“Where he must improve.. he has to have better position on the pitch when we have the ball,” Ancelotti told me after the game. “He has to choose the right situation to pass the ball.”

Ancelotti also went on to say that Camavinga was “outstanding” — an important point to make. Some of the stuff Camavinga did truly was outstanding. He picked pockets all around the field, including steals on Erling Haaland and Josko Gvardiol — unsuspecting of the incoming thievery. His long-range distribution broke City’s high line twice, and he applied pressure to City’s ball-carriers.

Camavinga is still not as polished as he was expected to be by year four. But as the saying goes, growth is not linear, and he brings a lot to the table. If he can clean up some of his mistakes on the ball, and work on his defensive positioning as Ancelotti noted, this is a special player for many years to come.

Manchester City, not the same

Manchester City have had a poor big-game track record this season. Heading into the first leg, they lost against Arsenal, Manchester United, Juventus, PSG, Liverpool, Tottenham (twice). In those seven losses, they’ve been outscored 25 – 6. They are mid-table in Passes Per Defensive Action (PPDA — an indicator of how aggressive their press is).

They look less ‘in control’ than normal. Though, even still, no Premier League team has had as many touches in the attacking third (6420) than them, and no team has had more possession (60.8% per game).

It’s their defense that struggles the most, and in the build-up phase, they miss Rodri. They are not as press-resistant as a team as they used to be. Arsenal exploited them ruthlessly at the beginning of February with strategic high-pressing.

Real Madrid don’t press as well as Arsenal, but pressing City is not the only way to beat them. Arsenal only pressed Pep Guardiola’s men in phases, strategically, and remained in a compact, narrow mid-block for large stretches of the game, cutting off passing lanes and ensuring there is no space to pump balls into the box to Erling Haaland.

I was skeptical Real Madrid could replicate such a compact defense, having such a poor season on that end, not only tactically, but also with so many injuries. Could they stay compact? Could the front three stick to their defensive assignments?

“In modern football, if those at the top don’t apply themselves, it’s much more complicated,” Pep Guardiola said in his pre-game press conference before the first leg. “Against Atlético, Vinicius or Mbappé sacrificed themselves.”

Shielding a frail backline starts higher up the pitch — if not through an aggressive press, then ensuring there is little-to-no permeability through the defensive lines.

That was one of the better (rare) pressing sequences this season, in a game, against Atletico, where there were several good defensive plays where the attackers worked hard, pressured in the right zones, and rotated quickly with synergy. Doing that against City is more challenging, especially for long stretches. When City scored in the first half, it was an instance where they ripped Real Madrid’s press apart, and a devastating, untracked off-ball run from Josko Gvardiol left Raul Asencio marking two players.

Ancelotti may have spurts — typically at the beginning and end of games — where he directs the team to defend higher up the pitch. In those two game states, opposing teams are often caught off guard at kick-off, and towards the end, their energy to deal with a press tapers off and Real Madrid’s subs can make an impact.

City may be wounded, but they had at least one man in form heading into this game: Erling Haaland. Antonio Rüdiger, who defended Haaland so well in the last couple years, didn’t play due to injury. City have multiple attacking threats to throw at Real Madrid’s frail wing-back situation: Jack Grealish, Savinho, Omar Marmoush. Could they get in-behind the wing-backs and sling crosses into a hungry Haaland?

(The above is a real, copy-and-paste question from my notepad from before the game.)

The answer: Asencio and Tchouameni did really well to make life uncomfortable for Haaland, and Valverde nullified City’s threats from that wing.

It’s hard to find optimistic Real Madrid supporters these days. Many have seen this season as a write-off already. Even if the team clicks into gear, the defense is decimated to the point of near-extinction. If they pull it off this season, it’ll be a special run. But the performance in the first leg gives some hope that the team can click into gear for a pivotal stretch.