It’s true that Real Madrid secured a spot in the round of sixteen of the UEFA Champions League by beating Benfica 3-1 on aggregate. In Portugal, Los Blancos displayed an acceptable off-ball performance that neutralized Mourinho’s team for the majority of the game. However, the final score at home doesn’t paint the whole reality.
The underlying numbers are worrying. Benfica created 1.64 expected goals in Bernabéu Stadium, and the visitors touched the ball 30 times in Real Madrid’s box. Thibaut Courtois,
as usual, had to make four saves to bail the team out of trouble.
With Alvaro Arbeloa, Real Madrid aren’t fixated on suffocating the opposition high up the pitch. Los Blancos are happy to retreat and defend in a zonal block. However, Real Madrid’s blocks scream compactness and pressure on the ball.
Here, Real Madrid sits in a 4-4-2 medium block. Araujo baits Vinicius Junior forward, waiting for Barreiro to dart across and target Vinicius’ blindside:
That encourages Camavinga to jump on, whereas Carreras shifts toward Dedić. Real Madrid’s left-back steps out late because he wanted to ensure that Richard Ríos was occupied by Tchouaméni.
That enabled Dedić to drift inside and dribble past Arda Güler to access Real Madrid’s stretched space between the lines.
Arnold narrows inside to cover the center, which frees up Andreas Schjelderup around the box to square the ball toward Rafa Silva and Vangelis Pavlidis.
In a similar situation, in the second half, Araujo entices Vinicius Junior to press. Meanwhile, Dedić pins Camavinga near the flanks, and Rafa Silva ties Alvaro Carreras inside and draws Tchouaméni’s attention.
Hence, Real Madrid is stretched vertically. That enables Barreiro to move behind Vinicius Junior and receive comfortably to drive forward. Arda Guler exacerbates the situation by staying still in the middle of the park without retreating to protect the center.
Barreiro escapes Camavinga and makes use of Tchouaméni tilting toward the right to pick Pavlidis between the lines.
The latter drops in, while Rafa Silva runs around Antonio Rüdiger. Pavlidis delaying his pass allows Carreras to recover and intercept the ball.
With Xabi Alonso, Real Madrid improved during out-of-possession phases. The low and medium blocks were compact vertically and horizontally, whereas Los Blancos posed problems to opponents when pressing high up the pitch.
After Xabi Alonso’s departure, the off-ball issues under Carlo Ancelotti resurfaced with Alvaro Arbeloa. The frailties are punctuated by a lack of pressure on the ball when sitting in a zonal block, with late step-outs from the center-backs, which leads to a total exposure to the space behind the backline.
Barcelona’s equalizer in the 2024/25 Super Cup final is a prime example. At the start, Gavi shifts across to drag Camavinga with him and opens the inside passing lane for Jules Koundé to slide the diagonal pass to Lewandowski. Not only that, but Gavi’s lateral movement vacates territory between the lines for the Polish striker to come short.
Lewandowski pulls Antonio Rüdiger out of position, drawing him up and allowing Lamine Yamal to race out into space and score.
Benfica’s goal against Real Madrid was extracted from the same book. After Aursnes’ switch to Dedić, Real Madrid retreated; however, the white team lacked compactness.
To elaborate, Pavlidis pulled wide, dragging Rüdiger with him, while Barreiro drew Tchouaméni forward. That left Raul Asencio at a numerical disadvantage. The latter stayed close to Rafa Silva to cover depth, which allowed Rios to receive Dedić‘s diagonal pass in space.
Not only that, but Rüdiger’s late step-up gave Ríos the chance to slide the pass behind the backline, with Camavinga being out of service.
That paved the road for Pavlidis to square the ball to Rafa Silva. Raul Asencio cleared the ball to Courtois, whose reflex denied an own goal. However, his effort wasn’t enough, as Rafa Silva gobbled up the rebound.
It‘s easy to deceive Real Madrid’s players. Once one of them is baited forward, the dominoes behind fall immediately. Benfica was close to banking the second goal after Real Madrid’s equaliser.
Here, Dedić waited for Vinicius Junior to commit a forward movement toward Araujo in order to find Barreiro roaming freely. The latter can pick out his options at ease, as the distance between him and Tchouaméni is large.
A two-versus-two situation near the flanks allows Dedić to punish the space behind Carreras. As a result, Benfica attacked Real Madrid’s backline in a four-versus-three situation.
Dedić prods the ball onto Rafa Silva behind Rüdiger. Fortunately, Raul Asencio swept behind his teammate to block off the shot.
Rafa Silva and Richard Ríos were a headache to Real Madrid’s center-backs, as their deeper movements challenged the backline coordination and decision-making. In this scene, Rafa Silva dropped in between the lines, pulling out Raul Asencio. Andreas Schjelderup pinned Alexander-Arnold near the flanks. As a consequence, Pavlidis was able to attack the space behind Asencio.
In the meantime, Rüdiger opted for covering depth to be able to defend any run in-behind. That only supplied Pavlidis with space to receive Schjelderup’s out-in pass.
The former drove forward, while Arnold didn’t track back Schjelderup, leaving him free to penetrate the box. Rüdiger and Asencio swarmed around to block off the cutback.
There is no end in sight to Real Madrid’s defensive woes. Still ten minutes until full time, Samuel Dahl invites Franco Mastantuono to press, whereas Arda Güler and Aurélien Tchouaméni mark Aursnes and Barreiro. Meanwhile, Rafa Silva attacking depth, Pavlidis anchoring Alaba, and Schjelderup pulling Arnold wide, opened up gaps vertically and horizontally in Real Madrid’s block. Resultantly, Rafa Silva was capable of receiving Dahl’s pass and standing on the ball to assess his options.
Schjelderup drifted infield, pushing Real Madrid’s backline rearward.
That allowed Pavlidis to play the ball back toward the flanks, where Dahl and Schjelderup overloaded Arnold.
Benfica’s left winger crosses the ball into the box for Rafa Silva to arrive late and target Tchouaméni’s blindside.
The UEFA Champions League draw put Real Madrid against Manchester City, a definitely stronger side than Benfica. The cost of the defensive frailties against Pep Guardiola’s team will lead to an early end to Real Madrid’s favorable competition.
