The 1-1 draw between Real Madrid and Manchester City at the Bernabeu was a very good game in which very little happened.
Certainly there were two great goals from nothing, but other than that there were no serious scoring chances, no obvious man of the match, no substitutions until the 81st minute and ultimately no winner.
In terms of system technology, both sides met expectations; Real Madrid because they rarely deviate from their standard approach, Manchester City because Pep Guardiola didn’t give it too much thought.
Real basically had a 4-3-3 system, although there were some nuances outside of possession to deal with City’s form. City used their regular 4-3-3, which becomes more of a 3-2-2-3 on possession, with John Stones (highlighted below) pushing into midfield. With City dominating possession in the first half, Real kept their central defenders tight on either side of Erling Haaland, their full-backs pushed wide to eliminate City’s wingers and they more or less man-marked in midfield.
However, the overwhelming feeling from watching City in possession was that they were very cautious. Despite the huge space between Real’s full-backs and centre-backs, City rarely tried to exploit this space as Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan often shaped their offense under Guardiola.
Real full-backs Dani Carvajal and Eduardo Camavinga were isolated at times, but City made no attempt to overload them with an overlapping run in support of the winger. Although Bernardo Silva and Jack Grealish were often open to game changes, City rarely risked conceding with diagonal balls. And when those wingers actually got the ball, they sauntered in and pushed the ball into midfield instead of trying to hit their opponent.
On the rare occasions City tried to attack the full-backs, they caused problems. Here Silva dribbles on the provisional full-back Camavinga. Real defensive midfielder Toni Kroos knows Camavinga needs support but also looks nervously over his shoulder to check De Bruyne’s position. He knows the danger. Eventually he moves over to support his left-back and in fact Silva makes a cut for De Bruyne to shoot from the edge of the box.
When City played in their basic 4-3-3 form, Real did well in central midfield – as the first chart below shows, it was just three-on-three. Trouble naturally arose as Stones pushed forward past Benzema to become the fourth central midfielder.
Real initially had no plan to stop him. Here Stones can receive the ball from Kyle Walker and dribble forward through midfield before playing the ball to Silva.
His presence in this position had knock-on effects. Here Rodri is in possession, Federico Valverde is busy with De Bruyne and Luka Modric is attracted to the Stones. This means Rodri is untagged and can get off a good shot from a distance.
But little by little, Benzema became more diligent without possession.
Here’s a somewhat bizarre situation: City have formed their midfield box and since Real are essentially man-marking, Benzema is brought in as an additional midfielder, allowing Real to match that box. That means Ruben Dias, the other centre-back, is completely free and has his foot on the ball for a few seconds, waiting for a challenge. Then he dribbles right through the middle of the box, thinking no one will challenge him. What he doesn’t realize is that Real’s left winger Vinicius Junior has taken charge and pulled back to pull off a tackle in front of his own centre-backs.
City’s pressing, often a crucial weapon this season, wasn’t particularly effective here. That’s partly because Real showed tremendous composure in deep positions to escape the pressing – especially in the left-back zone.
Here’s Vinicius Jr, starting a brilliant combination play with Kroos, David Alaba and Benzema after three minutes to escape City’s pressing and initiate a counterattack down the left.
It was basically a taste of Real Madrid’s goal as Alaba, Camavinga and Modric played a similarly narrow play to let Camavinga run away down the middle. He passed the ball to Vinicius, who fired off a thunderclap to give Real Madrid a 1-0 lead.
Real’s approach changed at the start of the second half. After playing a fairly traditional system, sitting deep and trying to play on the break, with a 1-0 lead, they kept possession for a long time and had periods of pressure.
Tactically, it was notable that Camavinga played at half-back, regularly moving up infield to left-midfield from his left-back role. A midfielder turned left-back in recent weeks, he is perfectly suited to the type of role that is increasingly seen as a standard position in top-flight football. He basically did what Stones did, albeit more as a full-back than a centre-back.
Modric often drifted to the left to level the equalizer and at one point they almost missed the goal to go behind.
Camavinga’s presence on the left was also responsible for a truly brilliant performance from Real as Benzema and Vinicius played together through City. It was a back heel from Camavinga, with the left-back acting as a sort of central midfielder, then a back heel from Dani Carvajal, with the right-back briefly popping up as a centre-forward. Stones blocked Benzema’s shot, preventing Real from what would have been a truly outstanding goal.
But the outstanding goal came at the other end, thanks to a masterful De Bruyne shot from 25 metres.
Although Real’s defense was not regularly left open, they allowed City numerous attempts from distance, including De Bruyne’s first-half shot when Kroos was drawn to left-back. This move was not entirely dissimilar. Kroos is initially seen chasing De Bruyne in the left back zone, but after the first move fails, De Bruyne repositions himself on the edge of the D while Kroos has yet to recover to a proper central midfield position.
Both teams seemed content with a 1-1 draw. Ancelotti simply replaced tired legs while Guardiola made no substitutions at all. With the tie completely even and City having already played the away game, they must be considered favorites to advance and will likely dominate the second leg. But in that first leg there was no connection between periods of dominance and scoring goals.