Real’s enigmatic appearance: Completely confused


Real’s enigmatic appearance
Totally confused

By Tobias Nordmann

The 2021 Champions League winner comes from England. Chelsea FC follow Manchester City into the final in Istanbul after a sovereign win against Real Madrid. The way there is surprisingly unproblematic for the Londoners.

Sergio Ramos was back. That’s always very good news for Real Madrid. For the opponents of the Spaniards mostly the opposite. Especially in the Champions League. A statistic shows the impressive relevance of the old defense chief for the success of the royal team. Since the 2018/19 season (why the statistics start there, unclear), Madrid have played 14 premier class games with Ramos, there was one defeat, 0.9 goals conceded and a win rate of 71 percent. Those are pretty great numbers. Just like this one: In the same time, Real had to play 13 games without the 35-year-old, seven of them were lost, the royal team scored 1.6 goals – the win rate fell to 31 percent.

Well, Sergio Ramos was back. And with it, the hope of the Madrilenians for a place in the final of the Champions League has grown significantly. The 1-1 from the first leg against Chelsea, not a great result, but not a bad one either. So everything is open in the second duel. And because all the great and great forces of Los Blancos were ready to fight, the situation was good for Real too. Experience, quality and strong nerves, that could be enough to bring down the tactically very good, technically even better and lightning-fast Londoners. And besides, real is still real. Or so one thought. Because after the 0: 2 (0: 1) defeat at Stamford Bridge, this dominant mindset was shaken mightily on this Wednesday evening.

Coach Zinedine Zidane’s team had been mercilessly inferior. And not because the strong and tactically clever Chelsea FC had a gigantic day over the course of the day. No, this Real Madrid was mostly alienated with itself – and with the tactics of their French maestro. In the past, he was often accused of sticking too rigidly to his system. Now he could easily let these verbal attacks of inflexibility roll off him. The success was there. And whoever is successful is right. Even if the successes in his second era are not quite as great as in his first engagement. Even if football is different without superstar Cristiano Ronaldo. More work, less spectacle. Which is of course always a small affront to the self-image of the club in Madrid.

What exactly was the plan?

Now the Zidane had thought about surprising the Londoners with a chain of three around Ramos. Ferland Mendy (right) and Vinicius Junior (left) played on the outside lanes. Mendy played more defensively, Vinicius Junior more offensively. What exactly was the plan behind this idea was not really evident over the entire 90 minutes. Not even for their own players, who at times seemed very confused. This was particularly evident in the center. Time and again, rooms opened up that didn’t even need the unique spatial interpreter qualities of Thomas Müller. They were just there and so obvious that the Londoners, with all their speed and technical brilliance, launched one raid after another.

Particularly outstanding: N’Golo Kanté. As in the first duel, the little Frenchman not only condensed every meter of space in midfield, but also sucked the ball and distributed it splendidly. Because this time the paths of Timo Werner, who was completely insecure in the first leg, were right, a powerful attacking storm came together. Ramos, as a middleman in defense, often threw himself against it alone. He did that as he always does. With robust use and also clever positional play. But against this mighty superior number that piled up around him, he too was occasionally overwhelmed.

The fact that this game only ended 2-0 and was actually open until the 85th minute was due to the serious chances that the Londoners once again allowed themselves. This time, however, Werner was not in the center of attention, who had become a fool with a ludicrous miss in the first leg. This time, among others, his national team colleague Kai Havertz proliferated. Before the 1-0 he put a lob spectacularly on the crossbar. His luck: Werner was the only footballer to go through and sank the rebound with his head to lead. Havertz also failed again in the second half because of the aluminum. This time by head. And a third time he awarded free-standing on the strong parrying Thibaut Courtois. All of these scenes were not good enough to make the German 100 million man a fool. Quite the opposite was the case. With his technical sophistication, he enriched the game of the Londoners.

Well, the game stayed open. Chelsea further refused to force the decision. Two other protagonists of the graduation phobia: Kanté and Mason Mount. Because it was only 1-0, because Real only needed one goal for extra time and because Karim Benzema had indicated twice in the first 45 minutes how dangerous he could be if he only got one My place – Édouard Mendy parried both times outstanding – the matter was explosive for Thomas Tuchel’s team at all times. Despite his own dominance in the switching game and the sovereignty in defense. The redemption then in minute 85: Mount pushed a nice preparatory work of the substitute Christian Pulisic over the line -finals perfect, on May 29th in Istanbul against Manchester City. Ramos couldn’t prevent the deliberate pass to Mount. In the middle, you guessed it, there was too much room for the goalscorer. Statistics cannot always be relied on.

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