Real Madrid against Barcelona. Copa Del Rey 2022/23. It was arguable, from a fan’s perspective, one of the less “exciting clasicos” ever, had the lowest xGoals value (0.56-0.63) from the clashes between them in the last 5 years in all of the competitions. Militao’s unfortunate own goal gave Barcelona a solid lead which managed to maintain, earning an edge going into the second leg, letting Real Madrid misfire failing to make a single shot on target. But let’s break through the tactical aspects of the game to figure out what really happened.
Initial Line ups Real Madrid – Barcelona
Source: Wyscout
Real Madrid
In possession
Ancelotti’s side deployed in a 1-4-2-3-1 formation changing from his favored 1-4-3-3, aiming to give Modric more freedom and space to move in as a no10. He tried to surprise his opponent and he was close to achieving this first part of his plan at the very beginning of the first half with Modric getting space behind the lines.
Moving on to the build-up, Kroos was dictating the play, dropping back and often forming a back line of three along with the 2 center backs, receiving the first pass, and trying to break Barca’s high press with his ability to retain possession under pressure.
Also, by doing this, the full backs of Real Madrid were allowed enough time and space to progress higher on the pitch and create overloads on the wings. This was Ancelotti’s second part of his plan but not successful enough though, as Nacho especially, is not the type of player who can provide thread on the left side by overlapping to support Vinicius, with the latter being isolated most of the time.
Starting the second half, and after realizing that his team was unable to thread from the left, Ancelotti turned his attention back to the right wing. Giving so more freedom to Carvajal to advance higher while Valverde and Modric occupied the half-spaces to penetrate the low block but again with not much success. It was after Rodrygo’s introduction in the 67th minute, who replaced Nacho, when they were getting more threatening.
Camavinga switched to left-back, Valverde was now moving more centrally and Rodrygo, offered a more dynamic alternative in the attacking line with his penetrating runs to support Vinicius and Benzema.
The problem was still unsolved though as Barcelona’s structure was still solid and compact. Carvajal struggled to influence on the right in almost the same way Nacho failed to do that, on the left, in the first half. With their flanks eliminated, Real was condemned to losing as they were facing a low narrow block with minimum space to exploit through the middle.
Camavinga and Carvajal advanced to provide more width in an attempt to drag the opposition out wide. Rodrygo is ready to drop deep to receive the ball before making his run through the middle while Valverde is also ready to move forward and occupied the left half-space alongside Modric, after passing the ball.
Out of possession
From the early stages of the match the intention of Real Madrid’s intention was to press Barcelona high on the pitch and win the ball as high as possible to generate counter attacks but mainly, the focus was to eliminate Balde’s progression with the ball. It was a quite successful plan as the Barcelona’s young wing-back rarely managed to make his usual dangerous runs.
Key Stats
Real Madrid enjoyed most of the possession in the match, having the ball 65% of the time, attempting a total of 680 passes with 88% accuracy but struggled to penetrate the opposition’s lines and create dangerous chances in front of the goal, with 13 shots attempted (6 of them inside the box) but 0 on target, leading to the low xG value of 0.56.
Given the fact that after taking the lead, Barcelona was retrieving into their own half, crossing seemed to be an option for Real Madrid to thread against a low block but again failed to do that, having a very low percentage of successful crosses, 8 out of 40 (20%).
Toni Kroos gave once again a top performance. As his team’s main orchestrator managed to complete 95% of his attempted passes having also 13 of 15 successful long passes, created one chance (xA=0.18), and won 100% of his ground duels (5).
Even though Vinicius was often left isolated on the left wing he still managed to complete 3(5) successful dribbles and won 8 of his 14 ground duels. He also created 3 chances, the second most from his side, but lost possession 24 times, the same as Carvajal, the most by any player on the field which, at some point, proves Real’s struggles to exploit on the full scale of their flanks.
Valverde was one of his team’s best performers creating 4 chances, the most by any player in the match, and attempted 2/2 successful dribbles, having also 87% completed passes and 86 total touches on the ball.
source: Sofascore.com
Carlo Ancelotti
Marcelo Bielsa
Barcelona
In possession
In the first half, Barcelona was building their attacks in a common 1-4-3-3 with Araujo staying wide on the right side and, instead of moving centrally to form Xavi’s commonly used back line of 3, a 2-2 was created with one of the central midfielders dropping deep along with Busquets.
This was, perhaps, a way to keep Vinicius away from their defensive territory and, at the same time, allow Raphinha to stay higher on the pitch. In many cases, Real’s man-marking managed to minimize the short passing options.
Avoiding the risk of giving the ball away, Ter Stegen wouldn’t hesitate to play a long ball and tried to beat the high press. In some cases, this was proven to be successful as De Jong was getting advantage of the gaps that Real left in the midfield and being an excellent ball carrier was able to progress the play in rapid fashion into the attacking third.
On some occasions when Real’s press wasn’t well-timed enough, Balde could then progress down the left side and Barcelona had the chance to go forward through a short passage of play with Gavi or Torres finding some pockets of space on the left.
Out of possession
Barcelona’s attempt to press Real Madrid high on the pitch, in the early moments of the match was proven to be unsuccessful as their opponent managed to escape from the man-marking using, at sometimes, Valverde as a fourth midfielder creating then overload in the midfield (4vs3). But it was a successful middle-press that led to a goal after double-marking Camavinga following a throw-in.
The situation got even better for Barcelona after gaining the lead when they retrieve to a medium or even a low block with short distances between the lines but retaining the man-marking in the middle. In the second half, as time was passing, they retrieved even more to a compact and narrow 4-5-1 formation changing to zonal marking when defending.
Key stats
Barcelona ended the match with only 4 shots attempted, 2 of them on target, both counted as big chances, having a total xG value of 0.63. Given the low number of attempts, the stats proved that they had by far more dangerous chances in front of the goal compared with their rivals (0.16 xG per shot).
Barcelona was unbeatable in the air, fairly dealing with the crosses to the penalty area. Each member of the defensive line won 50% or more of their aerial duels, (Alonso 4/5, Araujo 2/4, Balde 1/2, Kounde 2/2).
Frenkie de Jong had a great performance, having won 70% of his ground duels, completed 90% of his passes, 2/2 dribbled 3 interceptions, and touched the ball 56 times. Kessie was about to be his team’s unexpected hero and the biggest thread in front of the goal. Besides his involvement in the goal, he also had the biggest moment of the game reaching his xG of 0.52, almost 90% of Barcelona’s total xG.
Worth to be noticed that Arajo, as a right back, didn’t get dribbled past not a single time in the match on the right side, showing his ability to deal with 1vs1 situations.
source: Sofascore.com
Key moment:
Camavinga’ error to make a slick pass back to defense, with two opponents pressing him from behind, gave Barca the advantage through transition and took the lead after an own goal from Militao. It was against the momentum of the match which was with Real Madrid at that moment but exactly what Xavi needed, knowing that by taking no unnecessary risks, and showing a bit the limit aggressiveness, as time was passing, his team’s chances of winning were very high.
Hard to accept, but this is how Barcelona doing things under Xavi, always sticking to the plan no matter how unglamorized this could be. No reason to change it but still, should find their European soul soon.
On the other hand, Ancelotti was forced to change his well-executed by that time plan. Not an unfamiliar situation for him or his team. The unusual was that Real couldn’t show their tactical flexibility and adjust to the new aspects of the game. It can happen to the best of families, but happening again should worry them. Nether less, the qualification is still open, and the two giants are going into the second leg to sort out another, exciting or not, but interesting for sure, tactical battle.
