In the fourth round of the Europa League group stage, AC Milan travelled to Spain to face Real Betis. After their defeat in the return leg in Milan, Gennaro Gattusos team wanted to get their revenge against Quique Setién.
Under Quique Setién Real Betis have developed into one of the most interesting projects in Europe. Their positional play is on a remarkable high level which allows them to dominate most opponents and is a joy to watch. In the first leg, the team from Sevilla dominated Milan in their own stadium with constant ball movement and quick counterpressing. The team coached by Gennaro Gattuso still tries to find their playing style while fighting to get closer to Italys top teams. That’s why Milan do not focus heavily on the Europa League, however, they still want to get to the next round. Consequently, they tried to win in Sevilla but again got dominated in the first half. After a better second half, they walked away with a draw. Real Betis has to blame themselves for missing big chances and losing control of the game in the second half.
Milan with a different plan
Compared to the first leg in which Milan had no chance defensively, they changed a bit this time and wanted to stop Real Betis with a mixture of 5-3-2 and 5-2-3. Their main goal was to block the centre and therefore cut the connections between Real Betis players inside and outside of Milans defensive shape. The 5-3-2 usually allows a team to control the six-space which is crucial during the build-up. Milans plan was to force Betis to the wing by blocking the passing lanes to Betis midfielders Carvalho, Canales and Lo Celso. But, Real Betis positional play and the specific role adjustments of Quique Setién helped Betis to overcome the pressing of Milan.
As always, Betis build-up with their back-three. The wingbacks pushed higher while Carvalho and Canales supported the ball circulation. Whereas Carvalho positioned between Milans strikers, Canales moved towards the right halfspace or touchline. Therefore, it was hard for Milan to press him because Betis knew how to open up space for their playmaker.
Although the 5-3-2 is very compact in the centre it offers the opponent space near the wing which is usually no problem because the wing is the strategically worst zone. However, Betis moved the ball so well, that they could free up Canales in the right halfspace from where he found diagonal passing lanes in the centre.
By using certain principles of the positional play, Betis were capable of moving the ball and Milans defence which opened space for Canales. Quite often, they circulated the ball in the first line and tried to find Carvalho between the lines. The Portuguese midfielder either passed the ball back to the centre-backs or to Canales on the right side. The goal was always to attract opponents and therefore opening space for Canales.
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