Xavi got his 1st half tactics right, a solid 3 - box - 3 with Cancelo pinning down Mendy, Balde dragging Valverde wide and Felix dragging Carvajal out of position, Kroos had to deal with all the high press and also defend large amount of space. Bellingham and Tchouameni were always high up trying to mark Gundogan and Gavi without much success as Barcelona always had numerical advantage during build up and even in the final third.

Defensively Xavi was very spot on too. Barca went to back 5 with two holding midfielders in front of them. Vinicius and Carvajal could have all the space in the wide areas but the 3 CBs in the center literally had nobody to deal with. Bellingham was very tightly marked by Gavi for the entire first half and majority of the second half and Vinicius didn’t do much against Araujo either.

But the only thing Xavi didn’t plan for was the long game. No team can keep up that amount of high press and constant running for 90 mins. Not to mention most of Barca was in the bench. Although Kroos lost possession and didn’t do much in the first half, it can be said that it was a tactical choice to start Kroos instead of Camavinga or probably Modric. Ancelotti might not be on par with young more tactically advanced managers but his greatest strength is his knowledge of players and how to use them in the perfect position and perfect time of the match. Kroos is excellent when it comes to soaking up the pressure, sure camavinga can do that too but Kroos has proven it over the years and in a game like this Ancelotti chose the veteran in that duty. Real Madrid baited most of the press, made Barcelona run hard and by the 60th minute they were out of their energy.

Sure the story could have been a lot different if Barca would have scored 2-3 goals in the first half. All this press baiting and soaking up pressure wouldn’t have done anything then but that’s the risk you have to take and Ancelotti did take the risk. Once they were tired and Bellingham found the goal Ancelotti gave the license to Modric to use the space to his advantage and who can do it better than Luka !

At the end Bellingham was inevitable. He is a very skilled player with very good sense of positioning (watch his run for the second goal) but his greatest asset is his willpower. He didn’t actually have a very good game until his first goal, the congested central zone and Gavi’s tight marking didn’t let Bellingham have his usual game but he knew what was needed and he never gave up.

Another big factor is Romeu. I don’t know why Gavi was subbed, he had an excellent match but Romeu kept making mistakes, he failed to track the run of Modric multiple times and Barca payed for it.

  • uchiha_boy009@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    All I know is Ancelotti played coward football.

    In 2nd half, we started matching Barca’s intensity and they folded.

    This match could’ve been 3-0 for Barca, coward defensive tactics by Ancelotti.

  • Bini_9@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    No, stop giving Ancelotti credit for things that he didn’t take part in. He was once again saved by an individual action.

    He lost another match tactically.

  • Fjurica@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    First of all, when you set up your team, you do it so you can give them the best possible chance to win the match, you don’t plan if its early, mid or late game. There’s no such thing in football.

    Also squad depth due to injuries was going to come into the play if Barca weren’t leading by 2 goals come 60-65th minute, it would just happen.
    _____________________________________________________
    Ferran coming out was the momentum shift Madrid needed.

    I’m not a big Ferran Torres fan, but his mobility and link up play with Fermin was crucial for Barca’s build ups, both of them moved between the lines so well and it opened up space as they were not static in their positioning.

    So once Camavinga got it, things started getting bit harder for Barca as he’s different galaxy defensively and offensively compared to Mendy + he is also very capable on the ball, can carry + adds to the possession which would eventually lead to more control for Real anyway.

    Now if we’re going to lose the control (it would happen anyway since we didn’t have depth off the bench in terms of midfielders yesterday, starters would get worn out), Xavi thought we’re gonna lose control so lets get Lewy there who’s deadlier in front of the goal and can probably hold up the ball a bit better which allows Barca to skip past midfield with some long balls from the back. Unfortunately for Barca and Xavi, Ferran was crucial to making Real Madrid spread out as they couldn’t focus on him as a single focal point of the attack + he was first phase of press, him, Gavi and Fermin were all over Real in build up and as soon as we lost the ball.

    So with Ferran gone, we lost the ability to press, ability to stretch Real and we lost the control, Carlo noticed it straight away, called upon Modric and Joselu in next attack (Modric means more fluid control, more creativity and Joselu is a guy who will take focus from at least 1CB + he has aerial ability which would be useful with more control and more crosses there were gonna happen with RM taking over the control).

    Barca moved back, sat bit deeper as we lost control and couldn’t really compete for it, Valverde, Tchouameni, Jude all capable from long range started looking for opportunities the second Barca sat deep and thats how that marvelous goal from Bellingham happened, minute after MATS saved that shot from Tchouameni.

    Xavi tries to get more defensive solidity with Romeu over Fermin and Raphinha+Lamine to get back the ability to stretch Real defense + maybe do something on the counter.

    Control was lost, Lamine doesn’t have the sprinting power just yet to outdo Camavinga or Carvajal anyway, Raphinha is recovering from the injury + even when he was fit he couldn’t touch Camavinga.

    Romeu being awfully slow and fragile under press, Real Madrid were all over us and the goal was bound to happen and it obviously came where Romeu’s flaws (slow and kinda lazy) were on the display and Bellingham’s pure feel for the game, for the goal and the will to charge forward in hope to get at the end of a cross or a dead ball.

    Real scored, Bellingham won the El Clasico with another goal and yea, in my bit biased but also objective opinion, Barca were the better side throughout 90mins, couldn’t get it done, not because Real did something great but because they couldn’t finish their chances.

    Tactically speaking, Xavi prepared the match perfectly, neutralized Real, ate them alive in first 45, 2nd half Real comes out bit more energized and Xavi gets afraid Barca won’t be able to recover and in hopes for 2nd goal before we completely lose control subs out the guy who really allowed us to control the match in so many different aspects of the game.

    This single move by Xavi was recognized by Don Carlo and he pulled all the right moves to get the most out of it.

    I do think Xavi could’ve went with different approach here but I don’t blame him. Injuries and squad depth due to the injuries would come into the play if you don’t kill of Real Madrid before the tiredness kicks in.

    This was bound to happen with such short rotation of players and not that much experience in such matches for majority of players. If Barca could bring in FDJ, Pedri from the bench yesterday. Barca would regain the control and FDJ’s ability to carry the ball would hurt Real so badly.

    Once match started slowly going out of control, Xavi just had no other options, it was either risk going for another goal or sub out offensive players, bring on Alonso and Kounde and try to defend the lead for last 15-20mins. Ferran going out was just a trigger that accelerated the momentum switch for both teams. If Xavi didn’t go for Lewa, Carlo wouldn’t do his subs very next minute but would wait a bit longer and Barca clearly wouldn’t have dropped so deep.

    Either way, Bellingham didn’t play that well throughout 90mins, but he won the match, Carlo won the match with his adjustments and Barca’s only alternative was to hold on to 1-0 lead while suffering for last 30mins even more than they did yesterday.

    It was not realistic to expect Barca to compete against Real Madrid without 5 starters. Football is played for 90mins, Barca finishes off 1 more chance and this never happens, story of the season - not very effective offensively and major defensive issues due to DM/RB holes in transitions (Barca is very slow to set up in defensive shape because their midfield lacks that proper athletic ability and with how offensive Cancelo and Balde are).