Real Madrid’s four keys to victory in the Champions League Final
By Hasan Karim
Madrid must maintain a possession based system
Real Madrid has shown on countless occasions this season that they can play some genuinely great passing football. It was seen in the equalizing goal against Bayern Munich in the semifinals.
If Pep's MCFC or Barca had scored this you'd never hear the end of 'Tiki-taka porn', 'Cruyffismo', 'Total football', 'The Beautiful Game' but no... It was only Madrid against the German champions so let's move on. https://t.co/1psWUAktXu
— M•A•J (@Ultra_Suristic) May 3, 2018
Liverpool has shown weakness when starved of the ball and forced to sit and defend deep. It was seen in the first leg against Roma, despite being up on the scoreboard, they decided to sit deep and absorb pressure which didn’t work, leading to two conceded goals.
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It was seen in the return leg as well as they were unable to contend with Roma’s pressure when they decided to sit back. This led to errors in the way of leaving gaps and not tracking opponents.
Real should also consider attacking Liverpool on their flanks. We’ve seen Liverpool struggle with their defending of crosses and set-plays, something Madrid is very good at. With both of the full-backs in this Liverpool team being young and inexperienced, they should be the main aim of all Madrid attacks.
Players like Trent-Alexander Arnold have shown good form, but he has yet to face the pressure of a final. That is a trend across this Liverpool side. They may be hungry for success, however, Madrid has the big game experience.
Just when you think they’ve met their match, they turn up and blitz a very good team. We have seen it all through this season. We saw it last season against Juventus. The system is just as key as the mentality in this game, if Madrid can ride out the storm and control the flow of the ball, they will win this game.