Real Madrid Vs Juventus [1–0] Champions League 2025/2026: Igor Tudor Defensive Resilience & Xabi Alonso Attacking Inefficiency – Tactical Analysis

Real Madrid faced Juventus for the third game of the UEFA Champions League group stage, and Los Blancos won three points to join the four leading teams of this phase with nine points each.

Real Madrid did the job and secured the win, but their performance was not that satisfying for the teams fans and followers.

They believe Xabi Alonsos team could have scored more goals, as Madrid did not fully exploit their attacking potential.

More importantly, Real Madrid risked conceding more than one goal due to several worrying defensive mistakes that allowed Juventus to threaten Real Madrid’s goal and get very close to scoring.

Luckily for Real Madrid, Juventus’ attacking players failed to be as crucial as needed in the finishing department, which helped Real Madrid avoid a dramatic ending to the match.

On the other hand, Juventus’ performance was much better than in recent games, as it looked much more solid in defence and did an excellent job limiting Real Madrid’s threats while creating several dangerous goal-scoring opportunities throughout the match.

In this tactical analysis of the match between Real Madrid and Juventus, the focus will be on Juventus’ performance and game plan, and on what is lacking in their attacking phase to help them achieve better results in this kind of game.

Real Madrid Vs Juventus Lineups & Formations

Xabi Alonso started the match according to the 4-4-2 formation with Thibaut Courtois as a goalkeeper, and a defence made up of Federico Valverde as a right-back, Éder Militão and Raúl Asencio as centre-backs, and Álvaro Carreras as a left-back.

The midfield looked different from the previous games.

Alonso kept both Dani Ceballos and Franco Mastantuono on the bench.

He preferred to start Aurélien Tchouaméni and Arda Güler in central midfield, with Brahim Díaz and Vinícius Júnior as wingers.

The attacking duo consisted of Jude Bellingham as a second striker and Kylian Mbappé as the central striker.

On the other hand, Igor Tudor preferred to rest a few key players and use them during the second half.

His plan was relatively successful, as players like Manuel Locatelli and Francisco Conceição were highly impactful during that second period and helped Juventus greatly during attacking transitions.

Tudor started the match in the 5-4-1 formation, with Michele Di Gregorio in goal, Federico Gatti, Daniele Rugani, and Lloyd Kelly as centre-backs, and both Pierre Kalulu and Andrea Cambiaso as wing-backs.

The midfield consisted of Teun Koopmeiners and Khéphren Thuram as central midfielders, and Weston McKennie and Kenan Yıldız as wingers.

The choice of McKennie on the right wing was made to ensure more defensive work on the side where Júnior can be extremely dangerous, rather than starting with a more attacking option such as Conceição or Edon Zhegrova.

For the striker role, Tudor preferred to start with Dušan Vlahović, then use Jonathan David and Loïs Openda instead of Vlahović and Yıldız.

Juventus Dangerous Counterattacking System

Juventus started the match in the best possible way at the difficult Santiago Bernabéu Stadium and threatened Real Madrid from the opening minutes.

However, they failed to build on their initial attempts and were obliged to defend with a low defensive block in order to better resist Real Madrid’s actions.

In fact, Tudor