real madrid played chelsea at home in the ucl semi's . both the teams started the game with the same formation 3-5-2 . for the first time i think i saw zidane's team play with a back three . while chelsea was 3-5-2 real madrid were 5-2-3 . the fascinating thing was that zidane taking a page out of gaurdiola's book of bringing the left back in the central position and trying to have an extra option in the midfield which is an advantage when you have numbers in any position . the game wasnt that great it was slow game compared to the other game . both the teams were not ready to commit too many men forwards since they could be caught on the quick counter .
you cannot say for sure that real madrid were sitting back and chelsea were playing the counter attack . they both were playing both and compared to chelsea real played a bit of a high line in the first half . in the first half real were light in the midfield . chelsea particularly were exploiting this . the interesting thing was that real were playing in a twisted mindset .when the ball was upfield they wanted to press but then there back four or back five didnt want to come too up so as to close . they were playing relatively deep and this was creating quite a bit of space between the back line and the midfield and as soon as chelsea could beat the real press they were through on real goal with just back four defending. this was the feature of the first half . the midfield was crowded because both sides forward player would drop deep to support their mdifielders in trying to winning the ball back and congest the spaces between lines . real were five at the back now the thing is that whenever chelsea were on the counter their one fullback had quite a bit of space to run on the real back line . childwell specially had this luxury time and again . since modric was upfield and carvajal was sliding besides the back four childwell had quite a space to run on the back four and had he made some intelligent runs then things would be different . the other thing was that had werner had the intelligence to pick his team mates with the pass then chelsea would had caused real more problems . the more you cause chaos in the opponents minds the more you get the opportunity to defeat him . the thing in the first half was that both the teams players were getting time on the ball for both the teams . there was just light pressing where on they didnt caught on the wrong side of the defense.
the thing that impressed me but which real didnt do enough was that benzema and vinicius had good inter play between themselves but what intrigued me was that they pulled the trigger just a bit too early where on they could have tried a better penetration and more deeper in the opponents half . the other thing was that they should had brought others in the play which would had made it threatning .in the first half real had two in the middle and they were getting run over by chelsea especially kante who is more athletic than any of the real's midfielders . the main thing was that there was a vast space between midfield and back four . this was because real were afraid of pulisic's pace and his dribbling ability . so they were not keen on coming forward to press . instead they held their positions which allowed kante and pulisic time and space on the ball. time and again in the first half chelsea had chances to run on oppositions defense but they didnt capatalized the chances and wasted with thier poor choices of passes and trigger pulling .
zidane saw this and he bought modric in the middle along side kross and casmeiro in the second half but then you take one from the front and put in the middle that reduces the threat that you have . the game wasnt that great in the second half . both the team just played through the motions but i was exicited about chelsea when they introduced havartz on 65 min who me is the future of chelsea and should be the one that should start instead of werner . he will be combine very well with pulisic and is technically better than werner and has a good common sense as to when to shoot and when to pass plus his passing is very good .
the guy that i was disappointed with most in the match was jorghiniho . his passing was bad and most importantly he is one who sets up the tempo the game . a good midfielder not only passes the ball but also he plays himself and finds spots in move from where he can be more effective . a midfielder needs to find the spot from where he can be effective .jorghiniho was very pedestrian in this game and even his passing was not that good . i think mendy for real madrid who will come in the second leg will make major difference for real madrid . last but most important chelsea centre were not very comfortable whenever the ball came upfield and there is no cohesion between them which is needed .
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