In a rematch of the 2018 final, Zinedine Zidane’s Real Madrid met Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool in the Champions League quarter-finals.
Just like Liverpool, Real Madrid were without their first choice centre-backs, with Sergio Ramos ruled out through a calf injury and Raphaël Varane testing positive for Covid-19. Zidane made two changes to the team that beat Eibar on Saturday, bringing Toni Kroos and Vinicius Junior back into the side and reverting to their usual 4-3-3 formation.
Klopp made three changes to the team that beat Arsenal, replacing Roberto Firmino, Thiago Alcântara and James Milner with Diogo Jota, Georginio Wijnaldum and Naby Keïta in Liverpool’s typical 4-3-3 shape.
Liverpool started the game pressing high and several times managed to force Real into going long, allowing Liverpool to recover the ball easily.
They soon began to drop off though, allowing Madrid easy control of the game. One of the major problems was how narrow the frontline were. Typically Sadio Mané and Mohamed Salah will curve their runs when pressing to block the passes wide to the full-backs, but here they, particularly Mané, were too narrow to be able to block the path of these passes.
Madrid were constantly able to find Lucas Vazquez free on the right, forcing Liverpool to shift across to that flank, then Real would switch play to the other side, where Ferland Mendy was pushing high up in attack. Already having to track Vinicius, Trent Alexander-Arnold would be left outnumbered, two-against-one.
This wasn’t simply the fault of the frontline though. Madrid would frequently invert their midfield triangle, as Luka Modric and Kroos dropped back to the base of the midfield while Casemiro pushed forward to occupy the midfielders ahead of them. With Vinicius and Marco Asensio tucking inside in positions to pick up the ball between the lines, Liverpool’s midfield three couldn’t easily push up to deal with Kroos and Modric without leaving dangerous space behind them, and so Mané and Salah were forced narrow to deal with the two creative midfielders, leaving the flanks open. It was another example of simply too much being asked of the midfield defensively, as we have discussed previously on the site.
The far more glaring problem was the high line though. Kroos picked up the ball in his own half and, under no pressure, picked out a pass over the top. To be able to deal with a ball to Mendy out wide, Alexander-Arnold was positioned wider while Nathaniel Phillips simply isn’t fast enough, allowing Vinicius to make a run in between them, collect the ball and finish.
Klopp said “it’s not about the last line, it’s about what you do in front of that” after the game, which is partially true, but if those in front aren’t doing anything, it quickly does become about the last line.
Real were also pressuring Liverpool, having either Kroos or Modric push forward next to Karim Benzema to press in a 4-4-2 shape. Whichever of Kroos or Modric that wasn’t pressing high would push up to support in behind them, cutting off the pass into the midfield, with Asensio and Vinicius picking up the full-backs and Casemiro covering a bit behind them. Liverpool’s goal came from when Wijnaldum was able to evade this pressure and advance up the pitch, but this was an exception – generally Liverpool found themselves unable to play out. There was space in behind Madrid’s midfield yet Liverpool struggled to get there.
Madrid looked to preserve their lead in the second half. Mendy and Vazquez ventured forward far less than they had in the first half, while Real sat back more rather than pressing. This only increased as the half went on, with Asensio being replaced by Federico Valverde, who would drop back to the right to form a back five, and the wingers tracking back to support their full-backs. This meant that even if Liverpool’s attackers got past one man, there was usually another two waiting for them.
Liverpool certainly looked better in the second half though. The full-backs were able to push higher up the pitch, which in turn allowed the wingers to tuck inside, helping Liverpool’s control of the game.
The anonymous Keïta was taken off before half-time and replaced by Thiago, whose passing helped to cut through Madrid, while Xherdan Shaqiri and Firmino were attacking changes in place of Ozan Kabak and Jota. At this point Liverpool were already fighting a losing battle though, having to break down a defensive Madrid rather than competing on level terms.
Madrid rounded off their win with another Vinicius goal. Modric received the ball following a throw-in and eased away from Fabinho, sliding the ball to Vinicius to finish at the near post, with Alisson hardly covering himself in glory with his attempted save.
Liverpool have come back from worse situations, however it’s difficult to believe they will be advancing this time.
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