analysis of the victory over Real – football.ua

It is very interesting to follow the journalists, fans, experts who, after two Borussia defeats with a total score of 0:10, unanimously sent Luis Castro to retirement, and then, after defeating Real, are ready to take him in your arms. How quickly the public’s mood changes. What has changed in just one week? We will talk about this, but first to the initial schemes.

Luis Castro made four changes from the game against Borussia. In place of Andriy Pyatov, Anatoly Trubin returned to occupy the position in the goal. The injured Sergei Krivtsov was replaced by the 20-year-old Brazilian Vitao. He was paired with the Portuguese mentor by Valery Bondar, and Nikolai Matvienko was back on the left in defense. Viktor Kovalenko, not Alan Patrick, came out in midfield with Taras Stepanenko. And instead of Manor Solomon, Tyson appeared.

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Zinedine Zidane has completely changed the line of attack compared to last week’s match in Milan with Inter. So, instead of Eden Hazar, Marcos Asensio appeared on the field. Karim Benzema was at the forefront of the attack, not Mariano Díaz, as he was in the match with Inter. Likewise, Lucas Vásquez descended to the position of right back (a week ago he was playing on the same flank, but in attack), and his place was taken by Rodrigo.

Zidane chose a model with three attacking midfielders. If Odegor was closer to Benzema, then Modric and Kroos still had the job of containing the opponent’s counterattacks. In return, Real got better control of the ball in the center of the field, as well as two players capable of breaking the opponent’s defense with a single pass. This was very useful considering the medium and low blocking that Shakhtar defended. Zidane did not find his balance in the center of the field and did not try to fix it during the game.

The miner played two completely different halves. The first was reminiscent of the team’s three previous games in the Champions League: the Pitmen defended themselves with a low-medium block and could do absolutely nothing on counterattacks. The second: Shakhtar started having quick attacks. There was a lot of space and with it dangerous moments. In addition to the two goals scored, the Pitmen created two more good chances: Tyson’s attack at the beginning of time, which Courtois kicked off, and Kovalenko’s moment, whose 7-8 meter shot was blocked by the defenders.

Shakhtar – Real. Our qualifications

Castro did not invent anything fundamentally new. The team does not press high, goes back and meets the opponent in the center of the field. The coaching staff paid special attention to Real Madrid’s full-backs and full-backs. Tyson and Tete had to constantly pressure Vasquez and Mendy respectively.

Shakhtar, even with weak and not always organized pressure from Real Madrid, suffered many losses in their half of the field. “Weak” in the context of Borussia and Inter, not Dnipro-1, if that. The Pitmen lost 23 goals in their time throughout the match. Real Madrid – two. Remember the moment of Asensio at the opening of the match, this is a consequence of the pressure of the team and the loss of Dodo in his goal. It was fortunate that the ball only hit the post.

Shakhtar organized quick attacks in the first half with an ultra-fast transition from one phase to another. We counted those 5 attacks, but three of them ended in fouls by Real Madrid players in the center of the field. In general, Castro’s plan to catch an opponent in the second half on counterattacks is very simple and logical, given the older Real Madrid players in midfield. However, the Shakhtar in the first half of the attack is a hit from Tyson from a distance. And that’s it. Again. We affirm that in a positional attack, Castro’s team is frankly weak.

If in the first half the Real players still reacted to Shakhtar’s quick attacks and came back, then in the second … This, in fact, killed Real. Now Zidane’s team is simply monstrous in the attack-defense transition phase. In short, Madrilenians don’t always come back on time. Shakhtar did not have as much luxury as yesterday, neither with Borussia, nor with Inter. Even in UPL parties, this happens very, very rarely. And with Real it was. Also in two games. It’s about space. In the second half, Shakhtar had a lot of this space. But Shakhtar too, in the second 45 minutes, simply faced their attacks with a large number of players.

Shakhtar played similarly in previous Champions League matches, counting on quick counterattacks. In the “positioning” at the Champions level, the team is doing it wrong. But neither with Inter nor Borussia did the team have as much space ahead as yesterday. Also, Real are worse than both teams in terms of pressure. And let’s not forget that, especially in the first part, yesterday Shakhtar was lucky. Real Madrid created good chances. And if we take the whole game, Zidane’s team eliminated 2.3 in the xG system. While Shakhtar’s figure is 0.9.

And we can’t fail to mention Trubin, who made 8 shots on goal and made 3 super saves.

Ahead of Shakhtar, the final in Milan. The Shakhtar – Inter match will take place on December 9, the match starts at 22:00 Kiev time. In Football.ua An online text broadcast of the meeting will also be available.