“My evaluation is clear, we have defended very badly”. This is how Carlo Ancelotti summed up why his Real Madrid team had scored three goals at the Etihad and still lost the match. While the club, as an entity, is very well on track the signing of Antonio Rüdiger To finish propping up the defense of Real Madrid 2022-23, the role of the defense in Manchester reinforces that internal approach. The lack of coordination and individual errors between Militao and Alaba, also with Carvajal and Mendy, ‘thank’ the arrival of another experienced central defender with hierarchy.
The string of darts of an angry man Carletto after the game (“We started off soft”, “Two of the goals were individual errors”, “In the first half we lost many individual duels”) he placed a quartet (or quintet, because Nacho would come in later) in the pillory who did not know what do with City. The passivity with which the defense was used from 1-0 itself (neither of the two central defenders is in their position) is also reflected in the fact that in the entire first half the white team only committed two fouls… and none were by the four from the rear line. They were made by Vinicius (39′) and Kroos (44′).
To add insult to injury, the fourth as much skyblue It comes from a foul by Kroos himself on De Bruyne in which the referee Kovacs lets continue while Camavinga, the German and Carvajal wait for the whistle. Just what Bernardo Silva needed, the smartest, to place the ball in Courtois’s squad.
The germ of the 2-0 is an action in which Militao leaves his position to follow Foden and leaves Alaba and Mendy against three City footballers.
But that was 4-2. Long before that, the 2-0, came from a double error in a chain of central defenders. First, Militao neglected his area to chase Foden, which allowed Gabriel Jesus to find himself in superiority against Alaba, who came up with the very risky idea of trying to get ahead and steal. As it does not arrive, the Brazilian citizen he is left alone with the entire goal for himself. The complete mess. Sanchís, a historic Madrid central defender, jumped like a spring as he is well versed in the defensive trade now in his role as a commentator on Cope: “It is incredible that Madrid ends up defending three City attackers with two players from a throw-in.”
The tendency of Madrid’s central defenders in recent times is to jump very early and very high to put pressure on rival attackers. also happened to Nacho in his first intervention as soon as the second part began. Despite the fact that Madrid was still recovering from the scare of going 2-0 down and that first goal from Benzema gave him a lot of oxygen, the defender jumped to a ball beyond the center of the field under pressure to Gabriel Jesus. The ball passed both of them, it was caught by Mahrez who found a highway once, in addition, Militao failed to cross. Carvajal’s post and knee prevented the goal. Another chain of errors almost unbecoming of a Champions League semi-finalist…
In the 47th minute, Nacho came out of his zone to put pressure on Gabriel Jesús and left his back unprotected; The action continued with a mistake by Militao on the cut and City almost scored 3-1: Mahrez shot the post and Foden’s rebound was taken out by Carvajal under the sticks.
Errors and oversights by Madrid that caught the attention of Kun Agüero on his social networks and that the white team paid a very high price for, although they keep the tie alive for the second leg. That’s where the magic of the Bernabéu will come into play, but Ancelotti still appealed to leave Manchester to a more mundane recipe: “For the second leg… we have to defend better”.