Real Madrid’s tactical masterstroke leads to victory over Barcelona

Football strategies heavily rely on the straightforward idea of ʀɪsᴋ and reward, which seems to be especially important in matches between Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Carlo Ancelotti bravely pushed Dani Carvajal forward from right-back into an advanced position when the two teams faced off last month in a key La Liga match, when he gave Barcelona considerable issues in the second half. He appeared to have crossed the ball for Marco Asensio to score the game-winning goal at one point, but the VAR rejected the goal. After that, Barcelona launched an ᴀᴛᴛᴀᴄᴋ into the area behind Carvajal and scored a goal that not only won the game but perhaps also the championship.

It seemed similar when they met in the second leg of their Copa del Rey semifinal. Once more, Real’s right and Barcelona’s left flanks were in ᴄᴏɴꜰʟɪᴄᴛ. Alejandro Balde, a left defender for Barcelona, is all by himself on the far side of the field at this point in the game.

That wasn’t a one-off occurrence, and it wasn’t a coincidence either. Without possession, Xavi’s Barcelona style is a 4-3-3, but when they have it, it more closely resembles a 3-2-5, with the right-sided central midfielder pushing forward and, most importantly, Balde racing on the overlap to become a left winger making up the extra two ᴀᴛᴛᴀᴄᴋᴇʀs.

Ancelotti, however, effectively urged his trio of forwards to not be concerned about Balde. Rodrygo, the fictitious right winger, scarcely tracked back as he focused on placing himself to enable Real to ᴀᴛᴛᴀᴄᴋ in a three-on-three formation. A nice illustration of this is Balde moving forward into space while Rodrygo stays compact and near to Karim Benzema.

This circumstance on the far side appeared to be the origin of nearly every significant incident. Here we see Gavi playing the ball out to Balde’s overlapping run after drifting inside from the left. He made a decent chance for Gavi with his cutback.

Balde is now crossing deep for a headed Raphinha opportunity while once more having the freedom of the flank.

The same scenario that ended the most recent league game is presented here with Balde approaching the byline and attempting to play a cutback for Franck Kessie, but Eder Militao is there to intercept at the near post. Balde’s untracked runs continuously allowed Barcelona to enter.

Barcelona, though, also received a warning indication. Here, Robert Lewandowski received a forward pass from Sergio Busquets ten minutes into the match. On the opposite side, Balde recognizes this as his cue to advance quickly. Rodrygo makes no attempt to follow him.

Lewandowski loses the ball, but David Alaba sticks in a foot and wins it for his former Bayern teammate. Toni Kroos receives the ball; however, because of the error, Balde is now moving in the other direction, giving Rodrygo the opportunity to go past him into space and catch Kroos’ pass.

On the overlap, Rodrygo outruns Marcos Alonso and sends a cross for Vinicius Junior at the far post. Only Ronald Araujo’s outstanding last-second defense stops a tap-in.

Later, just before halftime, a 30-second end-to-end passage completely altered the game.

With a 1-0 lead from the first leg, Barcelona was creating more opportunities and felt like they were in position to win the match. Here, Gavi drifts inside from the left and plays the ball out to Balde similar to the previously discussed move. Highlighted in red, Rodrygo isn’t even remotely in a position to stop him.

Balde is free to cross the ball to Lewandowski…

… and he forces a decent save from Thibaut Courtois.

Gavi crosses into the box after that, and Real sᴛʀᴜɢɢʟᴇ to clear it. Happily, and entirely by chance…

…Rodrygo receives the ball perfectly and can quickly dribble past Alonso on the break.

And now it pays off for Real to have left Rodrygo free to ᴀᴛᴛᴀᴄᴋ. It’s essentially three-on-two because Balde is completely out of the game and Alonso is feverishly attempting to recover. Rodrygo has moved to the left to put further pressure on Barca’s two remaining defenders, and Vinicius Jr. has taken over.

Vinicius Jr plays the ball right to Benzema, who then deflects a return pass. Vincius Jr’s shot just almost crosses the line, but Benzema is there to put the score beyond a reasonable question.

As they sᴀʏ, goals change games, but it’s uncommon to witness a single goal alter a game so drastically. Barcelona quickly lost control after leading and seemed to lead by a score of 2-0 overall. Again, Rodrygo’s superior position allowed Real to make progress.

Although they were attempting to ᴘᴇɴᴇᴛʀᴀᴛᴇ Real’s counter-press, Barcelona had not really put together a passing move for the second goal. But rather than trying to occupy a position on the right, Rodrygo is walking back in a center-forward stance.

Thus, Rodrygo can make a run in behind when Real regain possession and Luka Modric drifts infield from the left.

Jules Kounde is eliminated in a lightning sprint, which frees up space for Modric to play in Benzema, who expertly sweeps the ball in.

Real’s third goal and Benzema’s second both came from the penalty spot. But once more, it was due to Rodrygo’s placement in front of Balde. Rodrygo is being instructed by Modric to keep high and get ready to swarm Alonso as Barca’s left-back receives this pass from Modric.

And Rodrygo was squaring off with Alonso as Real regained possession.

as Benzema’s penalty made it 3-0, Rodrygo came dangerously close to adding to the score but almost missed as Modric sent a ball across the six-yard box, this time in behind Balde.

And eventually, once Asensio had taken over for Rodrygo, the game was concluded as anticipated. Balde was wide open for Barcelona to strike once more.

But the strategy failed, allowing Real to once more launch a three-on-two ᴀssᴀᴜʟᴛ. After Asensio’s deft overlapping move let Vinicius Jr. through, Real found themselves in a situation similar to their first goal.

The normally composed Benzema finished off his hat-trick to make it 4-1 overall and set up a final with Osasuna the following month.

However, this game wasn’t really about his particular talent; rather, it was about Real’s wise bet to the right. In the end, it ʜᴜʀᴛ them in the league but worked out beautifully in the cup.

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