On Thursday, another UEFA Champions League semi-final was played as Real Madrid overcame Man City despite being two goals down in the 88th minute. Almost everyone admitted that Pep Guardiola’s Man City were the side when they met at the Etihad Stadium, but when they played each other again just one week later, the margin of both sides was smaller than expected as we saw Carlo Ancelotti making some wise changes to help his players.
This tactical analysis will explain the key tactics of both head coaches that had an impact in the game.
Lineups
Real Madrid came with only slight changes in the game as Nacho Fernández replaced the injured David Alaba as the partner of Éder Militão, and they added Casemiro into the midfield by dropping Rodrygo. Instead, it was Federico Valverde who played as the right-winger and kept the energy and defensive balance for the side.
For City, they had Kyle Walker barely recovered from injury he started and they also had João Cancelo returning from suspension who played left-back. The rest were the same who played well in the 4-3 victory, as the likes of Jack Grealish, Raheem Sterling, and İlkay Gündoğan all started on the bench.
