Real Madrid: Three burning questions after Champions League elimination

Why did Zinedine Zidane choose now to experiment?

Real Madrid got to this point in the Champions League because of Zinedine Zidane‘s calmness and flexibility. Without his leadership, experience, and knowledge, Los Blancos probably would not have made it this far.

But he didn’t put his players in the best chance to succeed on Wednesday night, whereas Thomas Tuchel played a perfect game managerially, organizing his defense and midfield while exploiting Real’s weaknesses defensively.

Meanwhile, it was hard to follow what exactly Real were trying to achieve. There was a lot of mindless passing in the attack, and a clear failure to get the ball into the feet of the star players, Karim Benzema and Eden Hazard. The former was brilliant, as usual, but he had very little service to work with.

But one player’s role epitomized the issues we saw in the second leg. Vinicius Junior started as a right wing back, and he never looked comfortable. The 20-year-old was playing in this position for the first time in a Champions League semifinal against a legitimately great team, and he really stood no chance.

Zidane didn’t even divert from this failing tactical setup, instead choosing to bring on Marco Asensio as a left wing back in the second half. Again, this was never going to work.

In the end, Zizou was outclassed by Tuchel across both legs, but especially in the second. It happens. Great players will get outplayed by other great players, and, this time, Tuchel got one over on Zidane. But Zizou did not do himself any favors by trying to get a little too cute with his decisions in leg two.