Real Madrid hosted their eternal rivals Barcelona at the Santiago Bernabeu in a big mid-week Copa del Rey semi-final clash this Wednesday. After a relatively even first leg in the Catalan capital, Los Blancos were slight favourites to earn themselves a ticket to the grand final. But once again, Barcelona proved to be at home in Madrid and blew Solaris boys out of the water and out of the competition with a 3-0 victory.
Still, the scoreboard is a bit misleading in this case as the hosts were the dominant side for the majority of the game but were extremely wasteful in front of goal. Add some Marc-Andre ter Stegen heroics to the mix and you have a recipe for disaster for Santiago Solari and his troops.
This tactical analysis will use statistics to dissect how Barcelona out-Realed Real Madrid to advance to their sixth consecutive Copa del Rey final with a big chance to make it five trophies in a row for the cabinet.
Lineups
Barcelona (4-4-2)
Starting XI: ter Stegen Semedo, Pique, Lenglet, Alba Rakitić, Busquets, Sergi Messi, Suarez, Dembele
Bench: Cillessen, Umtiti, Arthur, Vidal, Aleñá, Coutinho, Malcom
Coach: Ernesto Valverde
Real Madrid (4-3-3)
Starting XI: Navas Carvajal, Varane, Ramos, Reguilon Modrić, Casemiro, Kroos Lucas, Benzema, Vinicius
Bench: Courtois, Nacho, Bale, Marcelo, Valverde, Asensio, Ceballos
Coach: Santiago Solari
Barcelona setup
It’s not easy being Ernesto Valverde at this moment. The team is visibly exhausted and yet there is no time for rest as the conquest for the treble still continues. Although this was just a Copa del Rey match, it was a Clasico first, Copa match second. Even the fact that it was a semi-final probably took a back seat on this one.
The Ant did not surprise with his lineup at all. In big games, Valverde likes to take a pragmatic approach, prioritising balance and control over aggressiveness and ferocity. For that reason, we saw the return of the Nelson Semedo-Sergi Roberto combination on the right, and the Jordi Alba–Ousmane Dembele axis on the left.
Up front, and in the rest of the positions, it was business as
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