Three takeaways from Real Madrid’s 3-0 win against Juventus

It was another special Champions League night for Real Madrid as they grabbed a 3-0 win at Juventus. Here are three takeaways from the first-leg win.

Real Madrid’s pragmatic game plan

Los Blancos approached this game in a similar vein to how they approached the Champions League Final both last year and in Milan in 2016. Having scored early, Real sat back and asked their opponents to come out and attack them.

It’s clever in theory with a side like Juventus who are much more comfortable sitting back and waiting for a chance to counter, however, the Italians performed quite admirably in possession and put Real under serious pressure for much of the game.

For all that pressure, Juve rarely created any clear cut chances and although they created plenty of openings, they rarely had any end product. This can be seen in the xG charts after the game.

A meager Xg of 1.44 to Real’s 3.18 would lead you to believe that Los Blancos dominated this tie, but they didn’t with their two best periods of playing coming in the first 10 minutes and the last half an hour.

In between that time, Juventus probed the Madrid back line looking for a rare opening, when they did find these opening on the counter, they also found Raphael Varane and Sergio Ramos awaiting them.

The duo denied Juventus even a half chance for much of the first half and even when they looked to have been beaten they miraculously managed to recover.

It truly is a wonder how these two, particularly Ramos, can float in and out of La Liga games only to go onto another level in Europe. Zidane’s approach to this game was ultimately proven right, but, only due to his two center back’s phenomenal performance.