Tactical analysis from Real Madrid’s win over Bayern Munich

The game plan

Zidane had the team press very highly at the beginning of the match. Through the first half, the team was pressing very aggressively trying to force Bayern to make a mistake. They had a sense of urgency to win the ball early and tried to score frequently.

The team was positioned to have a stronger midfield. Even though Isco and Vazquez were wingers on paper, they dropped in frequently to overload the midfield and fight for the ball in the middle of the pitch. With Isco and Vazquez dropping deep, it pushed Ronaldo to a lone role up top where he was left to create by himself.

The team stayed strong on corners and cleared nearly all of them. Varane and Ramos positioned themselves to shutdown Lewandowski and Muller. The Bayern strikers became frustrated as the game was winding down missing key chances for their team.

The only downfall was when Kimmich scored, this goal could’ve been prevented. Marcelo provides great depth to the attack and pushes up as needed, so when he leaves his role someone covers. This didn’t happen as  Kroos switches off and doesn’t fill that role and cover the runner leading to the goal.

Bayern put on heavy pressure and the team dealt with it accordingly. Next leg the team will definitely work on closing down their attack through the wings by setting up to stop their crosses into the box, as this caused the most problems during the game.