Real Madrid’s heavy win over Manchester City at the Bernabeu did not come without preparation. According to reporting from David Álvarez of El País, Arbeloa had quietly spent days preparing a tactical surprise designed to exploit Pep Guardiola’s aggressive pressing.
Before the match, Arbeloa admitted he expected Guardiola to introduce something unexpected.
“He always has a surprise prepared. No matter how much you study his teams, when a match like this comes you know he has something different ready,”
Arbeloa had said pre-game.
Instead, Arbeloa delivered the surprise.
From the opening minutes, Thibaut Courtois repeatedly targeted the right flank with long goal kicks toward Federico Valverde. The pattern was deliberate. Madrid had trained the sequence extensively at Valdebebas, expecting City to press man-to-man and leave space behind the defensive line.
“We had trained it quite a lot, especially when playing out from goal,” Valverde explained. “They were going to press man-to-man and we knew there would be space behind.”
Courtois confirmed the same idea.
“We trained that a bit, looking for the space in behind because they defend very high, and it worked very well.”
The Belgian launched nine long restarts toward Valverde’s side during the match, according to HudlStatsbomb data. The pattern paid off when the Uruguayan controlled one of those deliveries, dribbled past Gianluigi Donnarumma, and scored the opener.
The strategy also reflected a broader concern Arbeloa had voiced in recent weeks: Madrid had become too dependent on Vinicius on the left flank.
“We always tend to look for that relatively easy outlet, which is Vinicius, who has enormous dribbling ability, but we have to be capable of creating danger on both sides.”
“We tilt our play heavily toward the left wing, which is normal, but we have to be able to do it on the other side as well. Otherwise we become easy to defend.”
Against City, Madrid finally found that balance — and Valverde became the unexpected weapon that broke Guardiola’s plan.
