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The knockout stages of the Champions League will begin next month, and Real Madrid will have a relatively easier round of 16 opponent in Atalanta compared to last year’s rival Manchester City.
Real have been a Champions League flop for two years in a row, but there is optimism that they can turn it around this year if their starting eleven can stay healthy and their defense can play to the standard set in 2019-2020.
But the majority of Madridistas have resigned themselves to another year without a deep streak in the Champions League, and this sobering realism stems from an acknowledgment of the club’s offensive woes. In La Liga, Real have only two wingers with multiple goals, Vinicius Junior and Lucas Vázquez, and neither of them have scored more than two goals in the league.
So, once again, it is Pichichi candidate Karim Benzema who leads the attack with his eight goals. And even when it comes to assists, Benzema is far ahead of the group with five as the only other player with more than two, Rodrygo Goes, is injured for a significant period of time.
Real Madrid may not even have an attack among the top 20 in European football
Real Madrid is fourth in the league in goals. In fact, there has been a lot of talk about the struggles that Lionel Messi, Antoine Griezmann and Barcelona’s rivals are going through, but La Blaugrana is the first in the league in goals. Even Real Sociedad is ahead of Los Blancos!
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When we extend the study to each of the top five leagues in European football, Real Madrid is in 25th place. Yes, there are 24 teams that have scored more than 30 goals so far in the five best leagues in Europe. Similarly, they are ranked 21st on xG.
If we adjust to the games played, Real Madrid ranks 35 (!) In goals scored every 90 minutes. Among all the teams in the knockout stages of the Champions League, only Sevilla, the La Liga team, is a worse scorer than Los Blancos!
But there is one thing we must mention, which is the quality of the competition. These stats take into account league games, but not league strength. La Liga has the toughest defenses in European football. Hence why the league doesn’t have a single club in the top 10 for goals per 90 minutes: Barcelona and Atleti are 14th and 16th, respectively. In the Bundesliga and Serie A, each club scores 1.51 goals every 90 minutes. But in La Liga, that number is a meager 1.17!
That is why we must take into account the difficulty of the League when talking about the Real Madrid attack. On paper, Real have clear offensive issues, but we must also remember that they scored multiple goals against Inter Milan and Borussia Monchengladbach in the group stage in all four head-to-head matches. And they never lost any of those games. It was against Shakhtar Donetsk’s low block, of course, that they stayed off the roster entirely.
The problems against low blocking should remain against Real Madrid, but we must also be fair and affirm that they will not face such opponents in the knockout stages. Yet at the same time, Manchester City showed us in the second leg of the round of 16 last season that a well-organized defense of a major club can be just as problematic for Los Merengues.
PSG, Dortmund, Liverpool, Chelsea, Atlético de Madrid, Barcelona, Atalanta, Manchester City and Bayern are clubs with more attacking power and better attack numbers than Real Madrid. But when the difference in league difficulty is taken into account, City and Chelsea, who are outside the top 20 in goals scored by 90, are not so far ahead of Real that it is impossible for Los Blancos to face each other. handy with them. Those Premier League teams are more talented in attack, but their consistency wanes.
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Real Madrid is definitely in the bottom half of the 16 knockout teams in the Champions League in terms of attack. But a forward of three from Eden Hazard, Karim Benzema and, say, Martin Odegaardh have as much star power as most of those clubs. The question is, can Hazard stay healthy and can Odegaard or Marco Asensio move on that right side? If so, Real’s attack is in the middle of the pack at worst and good enough to compete. But if not, Los Blancos could have another anticipated exit from the Champions League.
