Real Madrid vs. Lyon: UCL match review

Fantastic, Amazing, Enthralling, Maginificient, Freestyling, ____________________. Enter whatever other superlatives you can come up with in the blank space. That is how our performance was last night. After quite some time, I’ve really enjoyed our performance so much. Right from the shrill sound of the first whistle to the last, the players gave it all. A quick look at online forums and the confusion therein amongst fans in electing a Man of the Match strives to show how much of a team effort was exhibited in the match.

Lyon has traditionally been our Bete Noir with the previous match-ups tilted heavily in the French side’s favor. And they had it coming. What we saw at the Santiago Bernabeu was dominance, utter and complete.

A quick look at the match stats above shows exactly how much Real Madrid dominated the game. Lyon finished the game with just 1 shot on target with Iker Casillas having to make just 1 routine shot. What is more interesting is that we could’ve scored a couple of more goals had the finishing been a tad better.

Match Action

Like the other writers including me have been stressing in the past articles that Real has been suffering from a stuttering motor syndrome for the past 3-4 games wherein we take too long to get into the groove. That wasn’t the case last night however. The ref blew the whistle and we were on. Extensive pressing, and tactical attacking meant that Lyon were on the back foot from minute one. Perhaps they hadn’t expected us to hit top gear as soon as the game began. Whatever may be the reason, the early attacking intent paid off as Benzema scored the first goal within 20 minutes. Following a corner taken by Ozil, Ronaldo headed the ball over to Benzema and Ramos who were lurking at the far post. Benzema got to the ball first and slammed the ball into the knotted ropes behind Hugo Lloris for Madrid’s first.

Madrid had their first scare when Jimmy Briand shook off Marcelo and shot just wide of Iker’s far post. A few minutes later, the Bernabeu faithful had their hearts in their mouth when Gomis leveled the score with a finely taken volley only for the referee to flag him correctly for offside.

At the other end, Real had a goal disallowed when Xabi Alonso quickly took a free kick which was toe poked in by Benzema. In what has been a first of its kind in my living memory, Xabi Alonso got booked for this “offence”…taking a free kick too early. The irony of the situation is that he got booked for taking a free kick too late in one of the dead rubber group stages match last season!

There is something between Real Madrid and half time breaks this season. For the third time running, Real Madrid came out of the dugout and immediately scored a goal. Benzema capitalized on some shambolic defending by Lyon, drifted inside Lyon’s box and then laid the ball over to Khedira who scored his first ever goal in white as the Bernabeu erupted. By this time we had achieved a smooth 6^th speed and were positively “freestyling” as the commentator put it. One such move saw a neat interchange between Ozil, Marcelo and Benzema; the ball fell to Ozil who hit it at the Lyon goal from a tight angle. Unfortunately (for Lyon), Hugo Lloris who until then was having a fine game, diverted it into his own net.

Kaka soon came on for Ozil and was immediately into action running past three defenders and then shooting the ball agonizingly wide of Lloris’ goal. A corner resulted soon thereafter which Kaka lifted on to Ramos. Ramos chested the ball and with the all the time in the world, volleyed the ball past Lloris for Real Madrid’s fourth. The clock wound down soon after as Real Madrid celebrated an emphatic victory

Tactical Talks

I generally don’t like to do reviews much. However I was really looking forward to doing this review because of the tactical variations that I saw in this game.

As can be seen from the chalkboard on the left, Real Madrid lined up in a straightforward 4-2-3-1 formation against Lyon. I’ve said this before that Benzema’s sideward drifts and his willingness to participate heavily in the build-up often leaves the side with no reference inside the box. The advantage of this is that the front quartet plus a marauding Marcelo interchanges and overlaps a lot leaving an opposition’s defence with no clue whom to mark. As opposed to this, a team featuring Higuain is tactically more rigid with Higuain causing havoc to the defensive lines with others threading the through ball and moving into space created by Ozil & Higuain. The disadvantage of the earlier system can be seen when teams decide to defend zonally sitting deep. It means that generally all the interchanges and overlaps are often useless unless there’s a stray player running straight into the defense, a wild card thrown into the mix which can disrupt the zones and overload the defense lines.

This is exactly what Mourinho did last night. Sami Khedira, often a partner in the double pivot with Xabi Alonso functioned more of a box to box midfielder making those piercing runs straight into the box. Benzema’s tendency to drift towards the sides meant that whenever Benzema drifted towards the left, Real created an overload on Lyon’s right flank with Ozil, Ronaldo, Marcelo and Benzema all playing within touching distance of each other. Di Maria served a faux winger lurking on the edge of the defensive lines. However it was Khedira’s piercing runs which allowed the play to transit more easily and open up scoring oppurtunities by the dozen. Khedira’s goal was a direct result of this. With Lyon’s right flank overloaded, Benzema capitalized on a defensive error and Khedira ran into free space and slotted Benzema’s lay-off quite easily. I’m quite sure that this move must’ve been rehearsed to perfection in the training sessions.

Highlights

• There’s something between Real Madrid and four goals. We’ve been scoring four goals in the last three matches
• Kaka is really, really back. Three matches with three exciting performances & cameos
• Lyon, from being our Bete Noir, are now our whipping boys
• When you hunt with a dog, you get a hat-trick. When you hunt with a cat, you get goals, assists & orgasmous
• Khedira gets a goal, a man of the match performance and a stitched up forehead so that he never forgets this match
• Ramos is definitely the permanent center back for Real once Carvalho retires
• Pepe needs to work more; he’s still not close to being the Clasico Special as yet
• Di Maria works best when he doesn’t dive. And needs to cut down on his corner flag kissing shots
• Ronaldo needs to get a goal as soon as possible. His puppy face at the end of every game he doesn’t score in breaks a million hearts all over the world…again
• Arbeloa needs to confess to the fans that he hides a phone inside his socks. How else can he explain tweeting within 5 minutes of the game being over?
• Our Castilla boys; their excited tweets during and after the game are always so nice to read

For more views about the game, thoughts on Ozil, Kaka & Di Maria, and the insufferable Higuain v Benzema debate, don’t forget to listen to my podcast with Tanuj Lakhina & Gaelle here: http://www.madridismo.org/mp3/2011_18_10_real_vs_lyon.mp3